You have to gain a mandate for change.
In Brussels, officials said the parameters of the discussion were being set by German domestic politics and, in particular, by the need for Mrs. Merkel to gain a mandate from Parliament.
They are in urgent need, and countries can invoke the UN Responsibility to Protect as the legal basis for intervention, our treaty responsibilities for the security of allies, or gain a mandate from the Arab League.
On a serious note you probably couldn't get a worse result for the market with no party gaining a mandate to form a government and the most likely coalition combination, Labour and the Lib Dems, not having enough seats between them to form a majority government.
Dunstan called an election for March 1973, hoping to gain a mandate to seek changes to the Council.
Hopefully Obama will carry this message through 2012, and gain a mandate to use his second term to take on the growing inequities and game-rigging practices that have been undermining the American economy and American democracy for years.
The Fidesz party that he leads gained a hefty mandate in the 2010 elections and has since then, quite rightly in his supporters' eyes, carrying out his mandate of stabilisation and reform.
Mr Ashdown will speak on Sunday to gain a renewed mandate for his tactic of constructive opposition, and he will undoubtedly get it.
It is difficult to imagine that the Karzai administration can raise its game sufficiently to gain a popular mandate strong enough to stop the Taliban.
With these reforms, the speaker would lose some power, but gain a public mandate akin to the mayor's — as well as leadership over a strong institution that could fulfill its true potential as an agent of democracy.
