Comments on: A Coup For Democracy? http://democraticpiece.com/2009/06/29/a-coup-for-democracy/ Tentative conclusions on democracy & governance Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:25:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Greg Sanders http://democraticpiece.com/2009/06/29/a-coup-for-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-4327 Greg Sanders Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:32:56 +0000 http://democraticpiece.com/?p=1328#comment-4327 The process is all well and good, but I'd be surprised if the constitution allowed the Supreme Court to instigate a coup. I don't know what their equivalent for impeachment or no confidence votes are, but from what it sounds like the military move before the legislature. If the President was really as unpopular as all this indicates, there's little risk of him winning a referendum to consolidate power. I think the role of the military in such a situation is to ignore illegal orders to crackdown or to protect bodies performing their constitutional role. If there's private militias answerable only to the President or the like that's one thing, but I'm not hearing about any of those. In any event, if the rest of the government is acting in good faith, then it should be possible to work out an agreement to get back to elections or a formal impeachment trial or the like ASAP. The process is all well and good, but I’d be surprised if the constitution allowed the Supreme Court to instigate a coup. I don’t know what their equivalent for impeachment or no confidence votes are, but from what it sounds like the military move before the legislature. If the President was really as unpopular as all this indicates, there’s little risk of him winning a referendum to consolidate power.

I think the role of the military in such a situation is to ignore illegal orders to crackdown or to protect bodies performing their constitutional role. If there’s private militias answerable only to the President or the like that’s one thing, but I’m not hearing about any of those.

In any event, if the rest of the government is acting in good faith, then it should be possible to work out an agreement to get back to elections or a formal impeachment trial or the like ASAP.

]]>