The American Presidential Election: A
Democracy at Work
- Ashley Wills, Ambassador of the United States to Sri Lanka
Sufficient ink has been spilled on the American presidential campaign in the past few
weeks, and especially since Election Day, that one hesitates to add to the flow.
International observers around the globe have expressed so much sincere interest in this
contest, however, that a few more words can't
do any harm and may shed some light on what, from a distance, might seem a confusing
process.
The American humorist Mark Twain, in his later years, began many of his public lectures by
assuring his audiences that, "Reports of my death have been greatly
exaggerated."
So it is with the supposed "chaos" and "confusion" and
"constitutional crisis" that many foreign commentators have attributed to the
exercise in democracy that the United States is conducting. I think about these events in
other, more positive, terms. What we are witnessing excites and even inspires faith in
American democracy. After a long campaign marked by clear and differing expressions of
policy and a generally civil tone, one hundred million Americans have gone to the polls
and split their opinion so neatly between the two major candidates that we have had to put
the results under a
microscope to determine who has won.
The difference nationwide in the popular vote between Vice-President Gore and Governor
Bush is less than one-fourth of one percent, essentially a dead heat. The Electoral
College vote, on which the presidency finally turns, is the most closely divided in any
election since the earliest days of our
republic and, at this writing, has not yet been fully decided. Americans have been gripped
by this story as by few others in my lifetime, watching with a fascinated - and generally
approving -- curiosity as the process of the election comes down to the recounting of a
relative handful of votes in a part of the state of Florida. Whichever candidate wins this
recount wins the 25 electoral votes held by Florida and will almost certainly become the
President of the United States.
Rather than chaos, we see in Florida an orderly process unfolding. After six million votes
have been counted only a few hundred votes separate the two candidates. The presidency
hangs on that difference. The dispute, such as there is, hinges on what the most
reasonable efforts might be to assure that the counting of the votes has been accurate. No
method of counting votes is perfect; machines make mistakes, people make mistakes. In most
elections, even close ones, the margin between two candidates allows for an easily
discerned winner. This year is different.
Even as the recount continues, however, I need to bring to the attention of our foreign
friends a few points: First, despite the understandable disagreement between the Gore and
Bush camps on how the recount might best proceed, neither side has accused anyone of
election fraud or scandal. Some have criticized the design of the ballot in one Florida
county. Others insist that a machine count is more accurate than a hand count and the two
campaigns have filed lawsuits asking for judicial guidance on how the process should
proceed. To repeat: No one has said that anyone has been dishonest in his or her conduct
of the election. Second, there is no constitutional crisis. Every president's term
continues
until January 20 of the year after the election. We have plenty of time to sort this out
and will do so.
Finally, even our easily misunderstood Electoral College system will likely survive this
test. Many Americans understand that it discourages sectionalism and works against
candidates beholden to narrow interests. Most realize that if this election had been
decided by a popular vote we would likely be facing a 50-state recount, not simply a
recount in some counties of Florida.
The American people have split narrowly in their choice of a candidate for president. As
the political columnist David Broder has said, "the American people are evenly
divided, but not deeply divided." The two major candidates shared similar visions
with the voters, one from a somewhat more conservative perspective, the other from a
somewhat more liberal point of view. This is not a broad gap to bridge and Americans, an
eminently practical people, will manage to bridge it and continue to govern themselves
as they have for over 200 hundred years.
What we are seeing now is not the disintegration of the American electoral system, but
simply a deliberate and honest effort to make sure that every vote gets properly counted
in an almost unbelievably close election. What we are seeing now is not chaos but true
democracy in action. What we are seeing now is not a crisis but a vindication of our
system. I am not chagrined by this spectacle. I am proud that after 225 years of
independence the world's oldest democratic republic remains true to its founding belief
that the people should decide who leads them. I am proud.
(Text courtesy: USIA, Kathmandu, Nepal).
RUSSIA STARTS ITS NEW OFFENSIVE IN ARMS
CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT
(Extracts)
On the edge of the millenium the world came
to the important frontier in the cause of nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation of the
weapons of mass destruction and insurance of strategic stability. Russia has made its
contribution to this cause by ratifying START-2, package of New York agreements of 1997 in
the field of ABM and CTB Treaty. There is a consensus in the international community
– there should be no pause in the nuclear disarmament, intensification of the
disarmament process is necessary.
Russia is ready for that.
We do not see any grounds which would prevent
further deep reductions of strategic offensive armaments. We proposed to the USA to make
it as a goal radical reduction of the levels of nuclear warheads in our countries up to
1500, which is quite real to do by 2008. And this is not the limit – we will be ready
to consider further even lower level. We are of the opinion that it will not be necessary
to hold long taks or to start everything from the beginning – we have accumulated a
considerable experience, there are legal treaty mechanisms within the framework of START-1
and START-2. We hope that the US Senate will follow the suit of the Federal Assembly of
the Russian Federation and complete ratification of START-2 and agreements in the field of
ABM. But the main thing is that Russia and the USA should start without delay jointly or
parallelly moving towards radically low ceilings of nuclear warheads.
Achieving this goal should be carried out
under condition of preserving and strengthening ABM Treaty of 1972. We are told that the
situation in the world has drastically changed in the last three decades: new missile
threats emerged and allegedly there should be appropriate change of ABM Treaty. The
situation has really changed but not to such an extend to break the existing system of
strategic stability by eliminating the substance of the Treaty. It is possible to take
measures to counter proliferation of missiles and missile technologies without going
beyond the limits of the Treaty and by acting first and foremost by political and
diplomatic methods. Intensive dialogue between the USA and Democratic People's Republic of
Korea is a good example of it. The work is underway for creating a global system of
control over missiles and missile technologies.
To those countries which raise a question
about military-technical "safety net" we propose once again wide range
cooperation in the field of Theatre ABM within the framework of ABM Treaty.
Russia is ready to continue without pause the
dialogue with the USA started more than a year ago on the questions of ABM which are
causing differences between us. There is an obligation under the Treaty of 1972 to
consider all the questions affecting the Treaty. Accordingly we are open to continue such
discussions in the Joint Consultative Commission – negotiating forum successfully
working since 1973 in accordance with the Treaty.
The implementation of the realistic and
topical program of real nuclear disarmament proposed by Russia would permit in fact to
strengthen strategic stability and international security on the edge of the XXI century.
Place de la concorde gets a
facelift
-Annik Bianchini, France
The French capital’s most prestigious square is
going to return to the splendor that it had lost over the years. Paris City Hall has
decided to implement a vast program to enhance and redevelop Place de la Concorde.
‘The time has come’, the mayor of Paris asserts, ‘to restore its
architectural and landscape quality to the square, which is known all over the world,
while, at the same time, reducing the amount of road traffic passing through it, in favor
of pedestrians, bicycles and public transport. Restoration work on this famous square,
which has been listed as a historical monument, is being undertaken in close collaboration
with the ministry of Culture and Communication.
The terrace of the Tuileries gardens is the best place for
viewing Place de la concorde, the ‘cleanest place in the world’, Aragon used to
say optimistically, or at least a place that gives the impression of having been designed
by a clear-sighted person. The king’s first architect, Ange-Jacques Gabriel drew up
the plans for it for Louis XV. In 1748, it was a kind of forecourt between the garden and
the countryside. One of his contemporaries said, ‘it is the entrance to the town on
arriving from the province of Normandy and it will be extremely frequented’. He did
not know just how right he was.
The obelisk, a present from Egypt, is the center of the
north-south axis, with the facades of the Madeline Church and the chamber of deputies
facing each other across the square. The two fountains designed by Hittorf on the
classical themes of the allegory of water were manufactured using the most advanced
techniques of the time. The color has been restored by giving the bronze of the water
nymphs a patina by spraying them with hot nitrate solutions for the brown color and copper
nitrate for the green color. Traffic in Place de la Concorde will also be completely
re-thought so as to create real pedestrian links between the Tueleries Gardens and the
Champs-Elysees. The Paris chief of police has thus given the go ahead for the ambitious
plan chosen by Paris City Hall to reserve 80% of the area for pedestrians, reducing the
flows of cars coming into the square by 20%.The river Seine and the area around it are
also concerned. Paris City Hall has thus decided to prioritise the redevelopment of the
riverbanks. This vast operation which also includes numerous other actions such as
restoring the Petit Palais, the Chatelet and the Theatre de la Ville as well as the
reconstruction of the aquarium in the Trocadero gardens, should be largely completed by
2001.
The new Solferino footbridge, built to link the Orsay Museum
to the Tuileries gardens was also opened at the end of last year by ministry of culture
which was in charge of the building work. It will be extended by an underground passage
built by the city. The promenade along the banks of Seine which has today been partly
completed and continues over 12 kms. Should be extended to link the Andre Citroen Park to
Austerlitz Bridge. The Seine is without any doubt one of the most romantic and magical
settings in the world. This is borne out by the number of visitors going there each year.
It is a further invitation for a stroll, so that the magic of Paris goes on and on. |
