Word: reform
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...freedoms at a time when the dictator's Great Terror was sweeping the country. The current version was adopted in 1977. One of its key changes: the right to sue the state, which has seldom been exercised but which Party Leader Mikhail Gorbachev is trying to strengthen through a reform of the Soviet legal code...
...written under the watchful eye of U.S. occupation leaders, sought to prevent the rise of another Hitler by limiting the executive branch. Recalls Joachim von Elbe, a Bonn legal expert: "We did not want to make the Germans just imitate the American constitutional model but rely on themselves to reform, rebuild and overcome the Nazi period." The framers decreed that the Bundestag, or parliament, could not oust a Chancellor without first choosing a successor. That has helped prevent a return of the political chaos that brought the Nazis to power in the 1930s...
Chun's concession was to rescind his April 13 order postponing debate on democratic reform of the constitution until after next year's Summer Olympics in Seoul. But the President wanted to restrict such debate to the National Assembly, which had already considered the matter for nearly a year without taking action on it. The opposition, which has set as its primary goal direct presidential elections, insists that the issue be submitted to a national referendum...
Chun opened the talks by telling Kim he had "been wishing to see ((him)) all along" and had not previously met with him only because of "difficult circumstances." He then proceeded to compare the campaign to reform South Korea's constitution by referendum to go, a popular Oriental board game in which two opponents seek to outflank each other and expand territory with scores of strategically deployed small stones. Said Chun: "Political development will become difficult if we behave like a go player who angrily sweeps the go board clean in the middle of a game because he is doing...
...opinion on anything so specific as the referendum issue, he did say the U.S. goal for South Korea is a "democratic and stable society and a freely elected government which enjoys the support of its people and respects its rights." That was at least an endorsement for constitutional reform, if not necessarily on the opposition's terms. On the matter of martial law, which the government has hinted it might invoke, Sigur was unequivocal. "Our position on that is crystal clear," he said. "We oppose martial law, and would hate to see anything like that happen." Back in Washington, Sigur...