European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 3, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns i Anthony Lewis James Madison s ideas remain alive workable Washington a Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush arc doing important business but their Summit meeting seemed somehow apart from the real movement of history. That is taking place 5,000 Miles from Here in Moscow. The election of Boris Yeltsin As president of the russian Republic the open conflicts in Gorbachev Scircle Over economic policy the growing challenges to Central soviet authority All these Are manifestations of a political earthquake. We lived with astonishment last year through the revolutions in Eastern Europe. They were the throwing off of colonial communist regimes. Now something even More striking confronts us. An enormous society is approaching the Point of having no effective government and none in sight to replace it. A 70-Ycar-old political system is crumbling. The loss of authority in Moscow is As sudden As any in memory apart from that brought about by military defeat. How is it to be explained when Eastern Europe was being turned upside Down last december the european critic George Steiner threw cold water on the idea that people were rising up for democracy. Writing in Granta the British quarterly he said the crowds in Berlin Prague and Budapest were a not inebriated with some abstract passion for Freedom for social  rather they wanted the american consumer culture. A a videocassettes porno cassettes american style cosmetics and fast foods Quot Steiner wrote a not editions of Mill do Tocqueville or Solzhenitsyn were the prizes snatched from every West Berlin shelf by the liberated. The new temples to Liberty will be Mcdonald a and Kentucky Fried  of course economic factors have been important in the soviet Union As in Eastern Europe. People have had enough of struggling to exist in a despoiled environment. But i think Steiner was far too cynical in his dismissal of the longing for political Freedom. Yes people want american material goods but they also very much want the essential american political idea representative government under a constitutional system of checks and balances. American professors of constitutional Law Are advising the governments of Czechoslovakia Hungary and Lithuania on How to adapt James Madison to their needs. It was Madison and his colleagues at the constitutional convention of 1787 who gave the world its first written Constitution. It called for limited government hemmed in by rules and always answerable to the people. A the people not the government possess the absolute sovereignty a Madison explained later. It was a transform ugly Radical statement in its Day. Now in a Rush it has become the dominant belief of Mankind. The drama unfolding in Moscow shows us the importance of the democratic vision in a country that has hardly experienced democracy in its Long history. Gorbachev is manifestly losing authority and one reason is that he lacks the legitimacy of popular election. Many of his own economic advisers want to move quickly toward a Market system As Poland is doing. But that kind of boldness and risk would need a mandate that he evidently does not have from his people. Andrei Sakharov urged Gorbachev to follow a path of constitutionalism of Reform by Law. Gorbachev chose instead to impose Reform and build his personal position. It is not Clear How he now can obtain what turns out to be the necessary democratic validation. Americans can rightly be proud that not Only our wealth but our 200-year-old political ideas inspire the movement for change in Eastern Europe and the soviet Union. But we should be wary of self congratulation for our own democracy has developed grave flaws. As we Learned in the Iran Contra affair some of the most important american policies Are carried out in secret these Days with no accountability to the Public. Elections Are distorted by Money and voters hear about Willie Horton instead of issues that matter. Vaclav Havel reminded us Here in february of Thomas Jefferson s statement in the declaration of Independence that governments derive a their just Powers from the consent of the  to write those words. President Havel said a was a simple and important act of the human spirit. What gave meaning to that act however was the fact that the author backed it up with his  now As then democracy requires courage. C new York time Walter Mears Why the invisible a Saow is always at Center stage Summit time has been prime time for the a senior administration official a the ubiquitous Sao. A senior administration official is the identity assigned to the government experts who provide background detail and the administrations viewpoint on events like the current Summit conference Between president Bush and soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. There a been More than one of him and her in the Summit buildup but they speak with a single authoritative voice under briefing rules that do not permit further identification. The official is no newcomer to Washington. The briefing system has been around for years used by successive administrations to Tell their stories on such events As a presidential Mission abroad or a major policy statement at Home. That is done under what Are called background rules in which a source of information provides it Only on condition of anonymity. It does no to always work out. White House chief of staff John Sununu has had trouble with the system complaining earlier this year about the use of Anonymous sources by reporters then appearing in the briefing room prepared to speak under a senior official anonymity rules. Reporters protested the contradiction but he refused to put his briefing on the record. Sometimes officials say they can speak More candidly on background without attribution than on the record with names attached. Sometimes the background Rule is set by an official who says he does no to want to be identified because he Isnit supposed to be talking for publication. That a not the Case when the Sao appears at formal White House briefings on an event like the Summit conference. The Rule of anonymity is said to apply there because the briefer often Are technicians or negotiators Little known to the world outside their specialities and Are not Public figures or spokesmen for the administration. It leaves a margin for error since any slip is Anonymous. It has been described in past administrations As a system that permits diplomats to speak without nailing them to positions that could be a problem at a negotiating table. And it reserves the Public stage to the people elected or appointed to be there. President Bush and Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii both conducted on the record briefings and answered Summit questions at the same lectern the a senior official uses. With and without attribution the message from the White House became a self fulfilling prophecy of Summit Success to be validated sunday morning As Bush and Gorbachev hold a joint news conference on their meetings. One Way that a been done is by trying to lower expectations much As a presidential candidate sometimes plays Down his prospects in a primary election in order to claim Victory in almost any outcome. So with the United states and the soviet Union in contradictory and so far unyielding positions on the nato status of a reunified Germany senior officialdom said nobody should expect that to be resolved at the Summit. Baker then made the same Point in a thursday television interview saying that a involves a whole Host of other countries a not Only the superpowers. Another positioning tactic is to make the most of what is available. A was we move from conflict to cooperation a White House press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said on wednesday a agreements reached on thursday and Friday will provide for a realistic foundation for the growing and changing  relationship.�?�. Agreements Are reached at Summit meetings Only in the sense that they get a final endorsement there with the signing of deals negotiated in Advance. When the most ambitious of those treaties can t be nailed Down in time for Summit signatures the skillful a a Saow puts the emphasis elsewhere on deals that can be reached and on Progress that is not measured by a stack of documents anyhow. Not that agreements Arentt important the a senior official said but the real work of the Summit was honest Frank dialogue trying to move two superpowers just a few Steps closer together. Welcoming Gorbachev Bush said that the most meaningful measure of Success is in a the groundwork for overcoming decades of division and  and on that scorecards that count Points won and lost or agreements signed and shelved really wont measure results. That will have to show in what happens in the months ahead no matter what is said now. C associated press