Political Crackups
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900491.html
What Happens When Governments Don't Work
By Sebastian Mallaby
Monday, April 10, 2006; Page A17
In the fall of 1992, when a different Bush administration was
unraveling, Shin Kanemaru ran into a little trouble. Kanemaru was the
Tom DeLay of politics in Japan; he was the gruff son of a rural sake
maker who became a political kingmaker, and after he got busted for
taking money from the mob, gold ingots were discovered under his
floorboards. In the ensuing months, two things happened. Japanese
politics underwent convulsive shifts -- the ruling party split, then
lost its grip on power for the first time in four decades. But Japanese
policymaking barely improved. However odious the old crony boss, the
alternative proved nearly as imperfect.
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