Balance Of Power

Let the people have their say. That was the message in Berlin last week when German President Horst Köhler agreed to dissolve parliament, paving the way for a snap election, expected on Sept. 18. "The people should be able to decide the future policies of our country,"

Köhler said. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder will be pleased — he engineered the poll by deliberately losing a confidence vote in parliament on July 1 — but at least two parliamentary deputies plan to challenge Köhler's decision in the Constitutional Court. If the election does take place, conventional wisdom is that...