Traian Basescu a sea captain turned politician, won a surprise victory in Romania’s presidential run-off election held on Sunday. He is supposed to be more Western oriented than his opponent, the leader of the Social Democratic Party. Note that Basescu made his fame as mayor of Bucharest: There were too many wild dogs, he had them shot, Brigitte Bardot flew there to protest (animal rights and all). She didn’t get anywhere. Basescu became popular. Note near the end of the article how difficult it will be for him to form a government and why multi-party parliamentary systems are highly imperfect ways of trying to form majorities, and why the electoral college is a good thing!
multi-party democracy with more than 2 parties that are able to garner a popular vote ought to be the dream of every country. i can understand why you demoan the stability of a coalition government but not how you can use the same sentence to decry its lack of democracy.