Now the hard part starts.
Yushhenko wins, but Yanukovych gets 43%.
Minus the cheating, this seems to be about the same result as last time, despite the defection of much of Yanukovych’s elite support. So the pro-Russian, pro-tyranny, pro-poisoning vote is big and solid.
(What’s that I hear you say? That not everyone who voted for Yanukovych was in favor of tyranny or poisoning? Subjectively, that may be true: I’m sure not all Bush voters were subjectively in favor of torture, or of national bankruptcy. But obviously both Yanukovych voters and Bush voters so feared or hated what they thought the opposition stood for that they either refused to believe the facts or voted in spite of them.)
So Yushchenko has a hard row to hoe.
Once again: How much is this country prepared to pony up to make it work? If the answer doesn’t have 10 digits to the left of the decimal point, never mind.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman