For the last twelve years, Uruguay has been governed by a succession of nine-man National Councils, in which four members of the majority party take annual turns as the country's nominal President. When the presidency came around to Washington Beltrán.* 51, a Blanco Party leader and onetime editor of Montevideo's daily El Pais, he went on TV with a drastic proposal: abolish the Swiss-style council and return posthaste to a single, strong President. Said Beltrán: "If the government is required to govern, it must be provided with the means to do so."
Indeed it must. As a staunch little island...