Word: reform
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Certainly the spate of post-Watergate reform legislation has been undermined by unintended consequences. Campaign-spending laws spawned a proliferation of political-action committees. Strictures against lobbying by former Government officials have failed to halt revolving-door Reaganism. The very act of drawing statutory limits almost seems to guarantee that most behavior will cluster just this side of legality. As Education Secretary William Bennett puts it, "What I worry about is a legislator who says we have an ethics crisis, let's do something about...
Chirac went on to a 4 1/2-hour exchange with Gorbachev. Afterward the French Premier praised the Soviet leader's plans for reforms. "What he has in mind is not just profound but rapid," said Chirac. "If it succeeds, and I hope it does, this experience of reform will change the world by the end of the century...
...were students the only South Koreans involved in what amounts to a deepening confrontation with Chun's rule. A congregation of about 1,200, including 800 Protestant and Roman Catholic clergymen, took part in an overnight prayer vigil for political reform at the Ahyun Methodist Church in downtown Seoul. About 40 participants had their heads shaved by amateur barbers as a sign of their determination to carry on the protest campaign. An estimated 750 riot police surrounded the church to prevent additional people from entering. Eventually, the police broke up the meeting with force, injuring 27 participants...
Still other groups used written protests to register their dissatisfaction. One campaign criticizing the lack of political reform collected the signatures of 1,381 professors and instructors at 43 universities and colleges, or more than 10% of the country's total higher education faculty. Another lined up the support of 233 performing artists and 379 writers...
Strong as the memory of Kwangju remains in South Korean political life, however, the immediate cause of this year's extraordinary turmoil was a much more recent event. On April 13 Chun abruptly announced the end of a one-year- old national debate over electoral reform by declaring that no changes in the current system of choosing a chief executive would be contemplated until after the 1988 Summer Olympic Games, which are to be held in Seoul. To continue arguing about the matter while South Korea stands in the spotlight of world attention, said Chun, would "deepen our internal schisms...