Lessons from a gridlock.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Solita Collas-Monsod

PARALYSIS, gridlock, unstable government, sick man of _____, ailing economy, sleek budgets necessary to combat rising national debt, government incapable of tough decisions on tackling sluggish economic growth, country needs political clarity and a government that can reform tax...systems, economists warn decisive action is needed to invigorate the sluggish economy. Words and phrases describing the current Philippine political and economic situation? Guess again. These are all quotes from reports and analyses of the situation prevailing in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The irony. Here we have enthusiastic Charter change advocates proclaiming that the problems of the Philippines would be solved if we but changed from a presidential, unitary form of government to a parliamentary, federal form of governmentone presumably similar to that obtaining in Germany. Yet, this model of the political state that Charter-change advocates espouse is having problems that are strikingly similar to ours!

For example, it has been claimed that a parliamentary system will prevent the legislative gridlocks and delays we so often experiencethe most glaring being the inability of our Congress to pass the national budget on time, with the budgets being reenacted (i.e., the budget of the previous year is used) for 2001 and 2004. The 2004 budget would have been reenacted for this years budget had the 2005 General Appropriations Act not been passedalbeit quite late in March this year. And because of the greater ability in a parliamentary government to take fast and decisive action, thentheir argument goeseconomic growth and progress will also be faster. (Note: the gridlocks they refer to is actually caused more by our bicameral legislature than by our presidential system; the Charter-change advocates often seem to confuse a parliamentary form of government with a unicameral system.)

Well, Ive got news for them. Germany, with its parliamentary system, is experiencing just such a gridlock, with pundits shaking their heads at the political impasse that has the Germans not knowing, almost two weeks after elections (results come out within a day), who will be governing them, i.e., who will be their chancellor (the equivalent of prime minister). The two largest parties in that country, you see, are both claiming that they have a clear mandateor that the other partys claim of victory has not been confirmed by the electorate. (The difference is that, over there, no one is complaining he or she was cheated.)

How did the impasse arise? (1) Start with simple arithmetic: No one among the five parties got a clear majority in the German Bundestag (parliament). The conservative (right-of-center) Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian sister ...