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pub_date:The current Washington standoff is just a sign of the maturing of the American political system and its ability to deal with the earthshaking challenges facing it.迷你倉IMAGINE a country that has been engaged for close to two decades in two costly and un-winnable wars, that has been trying to recover from a devastating economic crisis, and that has also been experiencing dramatic changes in its demographic makeup.In the past, this or a similar set of developments coupled with a rising national debt, high rate of unemployment and a financially squeezed middle class, would have produced a political crisis and perhaps a revolution.Indeed, the pressures resulting from the fiscal and monetary crises and continuing illegal immigration from the Middle East have already led to the growing power of the xenophobic political right in some of the liberal-democratic nations in Europe and have challenged the long-term viability of the European Union (EU) itself.At the same time, countries in the Arab world, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and even in the more advanced East Asian region - Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines come to mind - have yet to embrace functioning and legitimate political systems that would be able to respond to public discontent over government authoritarianism, and corruption and have quite frequently witnessed mass demonstrations, military coups and sometimes, revolutions.It is important, therefore, that political and economic pundits around the world keep these realities in mind as they follow the political and legislative stalemate in Washington and the ensuing federal government shutdown and make dire predictions about the fate of the American system of government and the health of its economy.There is no doubt that the spectacle of a small group of Republican lawmakers holding the federal government hostage and threatening to force the US to default on its debt should raise concerns among Americans and their friends abroad; that is certainly not the way to run the world's first constitutional democracy and its largest economy.WorryingMost worrying to governments and central banks worldwide has been the possibility of a US default if the Republicans who control the House of Representatives refuse to raise the US$16.7 billion debt ceiling around Oct 17 when the Treasury Department must start paying about US$60 billion to finance its huge social-economic programmes.The view of most economists and policymakers is that a US default would be catastrophic not only for the United States by reversing the economic recovery and creating the conditions for a new recession, but also for the entire global economy in which US Treasury bonds play a crucial role in the financial markets.The fears among investors of another post-Lehman-collapse-like financial meltdown and a global economic crisis have already raised the costs of short-term borrowing by the Treasury Department and have shaken stock markets around the world.Yet both President Barack Obama and his main adversary in the evolving political drama, the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, have insisted that they were not willing to end Washington's current game of chicken.Speaker Boehner and the Republicans insist that they would agree to approve funding for the federal government and raise the debt ceiling only if President Obama agreed to put on hold or suspend some parts of the new national healthcare insurance programme (or "Obamacare").But President Obama made it clear during a press conference on Tuesday that he would not negotiate with the Republicans when that requires "hanging the threats of a government shutdown or economic chaos over the heads of the American people", warning that a default would be "insane".Political messThis political mess in Washington may be distressing to watch and certainly to those affected by it, including about 800,000 federal workers who have been sent off on no-pay leave as a result of the shutdown, and those sectors of the economy that provide services to the government.But when you consider the political and economic context in which all of this is taking place, the impasse between the White House and Congress may not lo儲存倉k so bad compared to what could have happened in other countries under similar conditions.After all, the financial meltdown and the Great Recession have had devastating effect on the members of the American middle class.Hundreds of thousands of households lost their life-savings and have seen the value of homes plunge, not to mention those who had to declare bankruptcy and who lost their houses, and those who are still struggling to find a job and support their families with salaries that have remained stagnant for two decades and more.And all of this economic destruction has been taking place against the backdrop of the military fiasco in Iraq, the never-ending war in Afghanistan, the rise of China and other emerging markets that are accused of "stealing" American manufacturing jobs and the arrival of millions of new immigrants, including 11 million "illegals" from Mexico and Central America, who are gradually eroding the power of the majority white population.So it shouldn't surprise anyone that these developments have sent shock waves through the entire American political system.On the one hand, they have led to the election and the re-election of the first African-American president supported by a new coalition in the Democratic Party of young voters, ethnic minorities and urban professionals.At the same time, these dramatic changes in the economy and society have also produced a political backlash that had given birth to the anti-government Tea-Party movement that, with the help of other important electoral groups, including white Christian evangelists, has taken over the Republican Party.At another time, this kind of political polarisation could have led to a violent civil war.In the European parliamentary system of today it could have brought about major political instability, a series of parliamentary elections, and the collapse of one coalition government after another.Ideological warThe Americans got instead the fiscal political and legislative battles of the last five years during which the radicalised Republicans have been challenging the legitimacy of President Obama.This is partly an ideological war between libertarian Republicans and progressive Democrats trying to advance their opposing social-economic agenda, including issues regarding the role of the government in the American economy.And it is also a struggle between a shrinking rural and social-conservative white electorate concentrated in the South and the Midwest ("Red" states) and the younger and more multi-ethnic and urban electorate in the urban centres in the East and West coasts ("blue" states) over issues such as immigration, race-relations, gay rights, and abortion.The good news is that this political fight is being conducted through peaceful means and in a mostly peaceful manner.Indeed, those who see the End of the World in what is happening in Washington these days, should recall that not long ago during the last century, the American political system had to contend with the Great Depression, violent racial tensions, student demonstrations, the assassination of one president and several political leaders, the resignation of one corrupt president and the failed attempt to impeach another one.So from this historical perspective, the current standoff in Washington is a sign of the maturing of the American political system and its ability to deal with the earthshaking challenges facing it.And after all the political drama and brinkmanship and we-are-on-the-eve- of-destruction prophecies, the debt ceiling will probably be raised a few minutes, hours or days before or after the deadline, the US will not default on its debt, the federal government will be open once again for business, and Congress will approve as the next head of the nation's central bank the first woman to serve in that powerful position who was nominated to her job by the first African-American president.How many countries can boast that kind of political progress when it comes to the power of women and ethnic minorities?At the end of the day, with all its shortcoming and faults, as Winston Churchill once put it: "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."迷你倉最平