Political will to find a way round term limits
If you have a high enough opinion of yourself to want to be president, you probably think that term limits are a stupid nuisance. If two terms of Bill Clinton (or Vladimir Putin, or Benazir Bhutto) are a good thing for the country, then surely three or four terms would be even better. There must be some way round it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has found a way. For years, he has been saying that he'll serve his two terms (eight years) and then leave office. And then, surprise! Last week Mr Putin suddenly announced that he would head the list of his party, United Russia, in December's parliamentary election. United Russia is certain to win the election - and Mr Putin told the party's congress that he would be willing to take the job of prime minister once he retires as president in March.
Mr Putin is by far the most powerful and popular politician in Russia. If he becomes prime minister, the executive power will slide from the president's office to his. Then, in the following election in 2012 (when he'll still be only 60), he can run for the presidency again quite legally, and move the centre of power back to the president's office. And at no point will the country's democratic constitution have been tampered with. Clever.
Even shadier games are under way in Pakistan, a country whose democratic facade is a good deal more tattered than Russia's. The general who made himself president eight years ago, Pervez Musharraf, was facing mounting popular discontent, but he has just made an alliance with the twice-deposed former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who is due to return from nine years of exile next week.
General Musharraf had previously changed the constitution to ban anybody from serving more than twice as prime minister, precisely to prevent Ms Bhutto and her long-time rival Nawaz Sharif from ever returning to power. But now that change will be undone, and Ms Bhutto, daughter of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, will return triumphantly to power. Or at least a share of power.
This is shabby stuff, and the dynastic element is particularly hard to take. Why, with almost 170 million Pakistanis to choose from, is this woman the great hope of Pakistani democracy? Because she is an enormously rich, feudal landowner and the daughter of a martyred former prime minister, and because the dynastic principle is big in the Indian sub-continent.
You wouldn't find that sort of thing happening in the older democracies - except, of course, in the United States. There are 300 million Americans, but if Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the presidency next year and gets two full terms, then only two families - the Bushes and Clintons - will have monopolised the presidency for 28 consecutive years.
Part of the Clintons' appeal to the Democratic voting base - which has now given Hillary an almost unbeatable lead for the Democratic presidential nomination - is precisely the two-for-one package that is on offer. But it still feels sort of, well, subcontinental.
Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries
