Posts tagged as:

governance

MERITOCRACY: a society which is governed by people who are selected for their intelligence, accomplishments and abilities

July 14, 2012

At first blush, the idea of a government in which leadership is given over to people who are intelligent and accomplished sounds like a great improvement over most other systems.   In countries where leadership is granted dependent upon one’s birthright or inherited status, for instance, there is absolutely no guarantee that those who ascend to [...]

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PROGRESSIVE: favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform

July 5, 2012

In the “name your political inclination” column the word progressive keeps croppping up.  Different people tend to identify the term with varying meanings, so it’s worth taking a couple of minutes to look at it more closely and see what it actually means. In U.S. politics one has to begin with Theodore Roosevelt who formed [...]

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MERITOCRACY: a system in which leadership is based upon skill, accomplishment and ability

March 24, 2012

Some say it’s a fantasy.  Others say it’s a utopian dream.   Some say it is impossible to accomplish.   Many say there are not tests to validate it.   Some scorn it as being “elitist.” Meritocracy, however, is an alternative way of achieving leadership by eliminating appointment of leaders based upon social status, race, gender, family,  economic [...]

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MORAL CALCULUS: to measure the ethical quality of an issue

February 18, 2012

Charles Krauthammer is a skilled writer, although I seldom come down on the same side of an issue with him.   Today is one of those days when his column in the Washington Post really agitates me.   I had to read it a couple of times before I was sure about what I was feeling about [...]

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REVOLUTION: an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

February 11, 2011

There have been all kinds of euphemisms employed over the past two weeks to describe the activity in the central square of Cairo and in the other cities of Egypt.  But the reality has pushed through those euphemisms:   what is happening is a revolution. The people of Egypt have lived under the organized dictatorship of [...]

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GOVERNANCE: a system of oversight

December 26, 2010

There are some who believe that “getting elected” or “winning an election” is all that it takes to become the head of a country, state or municipality.   If we were to live by that belief we would be placing the craft of politics at the top of the ladder … and we would be missing [...]

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