Paul Krugman Likes the Supermajority…Sometimes

"I read with interest Paul Krugman’s opinion column in the New York Times last week, 'Let’s Not Make a Deal.' As the title of this week’s column suggests, published as it was just following the results of the US elections, Krugman makes an argument for the importance of the legislative supermajority and defending the will of the majority of voters.

His column focuses on the fiscal problems of the US and the disagreement between Democrats and Republicans about how to solve them. Following his re-election, and his party’s strong showing in the US Senate elections, President Obama, Krugman argues, should stand his ground and should not compromise with an obstructionist political opposition. The president, he says, won re-election 'with a populist campaign, so he can plausibly claim that Republicans are defying the will of the American people.'

That column was the first in a series of writings about Hungary. The subsequent writings appeared on his blog, The Conscience of a Liberal, and were written as guest posts by his Princeton colleague, Kim Lane Scheppele. Apparently, for Krugman, the legislative supermajority is a threat to democracy, unless of course it’s the supermajority of your own political interest and then, well, it’s the vaunted ‘will of the people’ and should not compromise."