> But can the parliament could be overrided? I think Tariq Ali said it could in the event of a no vote.
>
> - -- Shane
the problem is an essential concept of parliamentary democracy - that if a government proposal of great importance is defeated by failing to get a constitutional majority in an elected parliament, the government either resigns or changes its policy. that's it.
as for constitutional interpretation (a la the US Supreme Court) to cancel democratic outcomes, the President of Turkey has shown himself to be (certainly by US standards) an honest and principled constitutional interpretor of fundamentally democratic inclinations, even in his prior career on the Constitutinal Court. i believe he's a major obstacle for them.
of course folks in DC and northern Virginia even now are considering how to change the result by force; coups of various degrees after which the Parliament is forced to vote the right way under gunsights.
but both for them and their friends in the Turkish high command (quite possible a minority) an attempt - even a success - will now only increase their great humiliation. of course it's possible. limits to their vileness are uncertain.
here's what's on offer to the Turkish governing elite:
carrying out the parliamentary verdict can lead to a.the solution the Cyprus dispute with the aid of the Greek government and the new - and progressive - President of (Greek) Cyprus; b. entering Europe claiming to have proved the fundamental allegiance of the Turkish ruling class at last to Enlightenment beliefs (the Ataturk project); b. establishing Turkish moral leadership (compared to the various local governments in terror equally of the US & their own populations) throughout the area of the old Ottoman empire to a degree not seen since the Califate; d. obtaining for a Turkish government for the first time in living memory the support of the great majority of Turks (and Greeks!)...
overturning the parliamentary verdict will obtain $8.5 billion cash and meaningless promises of ever so much more; the necessity to crush domestic opposition with repression (they know how to do this) while mobilizing the army (a famously dangerous combination); the infamy reserved in pre-capitalist society for those who sell their honor offset by the praise of US academic neoliberal economists.
close call, i guess...
john mage
> > could in the event of a no vote.
>
> - -- Shane
the problem is an essential concept of parliamentary democracy - that if a government proposal of great importance is defeated by failing to get a constitutional majority in an elected parliament, the government either resigns or changes its policy. that's it.
as for constitutional interpretation (a la the US Supreme Court) to cancel democratic outcomes, the President of Turkey has shown himself to be (certainly by US standards) an honest and principled constitutional interpretor of fundamentally democratic inclinations, even in his prior career on the Constitutinal Court. i believe he's a major obstacle for them.
of course folks in DC and northern Virginia even now are considering how to change the result by force; coups of various degrees after which the Parliament is forced to vote the right way under gunsights.
but both for them and their friends in the Turkish high command (quite possible a minority) an attempt - even a success - will now only increase their great humiliation. of course it's possible. limits to their vileness are uncertain.
here's what's on offer to the Turkish governing elite:
carrying out the parliamentary verdict can lead to a.the solution the Cyprus dispute with the aid of the Greek government and the new - and progressive - President of (Greek) Cyprus; b. entering Europe claiming to have proved the fundamental allegiance of the Turkish ruling class at last to Enlightenment beliefs (the Ataturk project); b. establishing Turkish moral leadership (compared to the various local governments in terror equally of the US & their own populations) throughout the area of the old Ottoman empire to a degree not seen since the Califate; d. obtaining for a Turkish government the first time in living memory the support of the great majority of Turks (and Greeks!)...
overturning the parliamentary verdict will obtain $8.5 billion cash and meaningless promises of ever so much more; the necessity to crush domestic opposition with repression (they know how to do this) while mobilizing the army (a famously dangerous combination); the infamy reserved in pre-capitalist society for those who sell their honor offset by the praise of US academic neoliberal economists.
close call, i guess...
john mage