Word: functioned
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...more basic questions about responsibility have become even more troubling. The Iranian arms deals and covert contra supply operations, dubious enough on their own, were part of a larger, even more insidious pattern: the establishment of a runaway foreign policy that relied on lies and deceptions to function outside the rule of law. Could the buck for such an apparatus really have stopped with John Poindexter...
...spaciousness of Berri's style is, of course, old-fashioned, so much so that it strikes us with the force of something new. But its most important function is to link his work with two currently disused narrative traditions. One is that of the naturalistic novel, which insists on locating characters within a detailed rendering of their world, forcing the reader to recognize that the seemingly minor incidents of life reveal the workings of vast, elemental forces. The other, astonishingly enough, is Greek drama, in which the psychological intimacy among characters is irrelevant, since their destinies are determined...
...Virginia plan envisioned replacing the Confederation with a strong national government. This government would be dominated by a bicameral legislature elected by proportional representation, i.e., more seats for the more populous or wealthier states. There would be a national "executive," but the executive's only function would be to carry out the wishes of the national legislature...
...separated to preserve liberties. But separation can also destroy liberties," writes Louis Fisher, a specialist in American national government in the Library of Congress. "The framers of the American Constitution did not want a political system so fragmented in structure, so divided in authority, that Government could not function...
Indiana Democrat Lee Hamilton, chairman of the House select committee, eloquently summed up the lessons learned so far. "Our Government cannot function cloaked in secrecy," he said. "It cannot function unless officials tell the truth." Beyond that, Hamilton noted that "privatization of foreign policy is a prescription for confusion and failure." He found an absence of accountability throughout the sorry affair. "High officials cannot look the other way or distance themselves from key aspects of policy or the actions of those they supervise...