Looks like Arnold isn't the only politician getting his comeuppance. Tony Blair's big terrorism bill was defeated in parliament. The sticking point seemed to be the provision to hold suspected terrorists for 90 days without charging them.

Agree with it or not, the reasons for its defeat are ridiculous. Essentially, the Tories voted against it solely to undermine Blair's authority. Thus, they can undercut the authority of the government, which is the Labour party. Then some of the Labour mp's broke ranks just to spite Blair due to their opposition to the Iraq war in general.

So whether Blair becomes a lame duck like Bush seemingly will... early in their respective terms... remains to be seen.

Certainly the flaws of parliamentary democracy are exposed when the parties betray their goals for the sole purpose of taking political powers.

I think that Konstantin Pobedonostsev most clearly enunciated the flaws in such a political system. Some of it applies to American democracy as well. While he is a bit conservative, even for me, he surely represents the level of intellectualism that should inform modern conservatives to this day. It's hard to argue with such precision and lucidity... and while he perhaps didn't HAVE to living in an autocracy, he represented ideology that was not only internally consistent but unwilling to sacrifice itself upon the altar of power.