Were Conservative modernisers right to argue that two-party government makes difficult reforms easier to pull off?
Lew said he hoped a resolution would "allow Greece to make difficult but necessary fiscal and structural reforms, return to growth, and achieve debt sustainability within the eurozone", a US treasury statement said.
Elsewhere in his speech he said: The eurozone should create a joint budget, separate from the EU budget, to help countries making difficult structural reforms.
The greatest risk may be that popular expectations rise too fast and Mr Modi's grand promises of "good times" clash with the need to make difficult political decisions reforming tax policy for example, or changing the law on land acquisition.
But, as past experience with even modest reform proposals shows, the interests vested in the current system make reform difficult.
Mr Dirceu admitted that the new government expects to face strikes and protests as a result.To contain frustration at his inability to fulfil his promises in the short term, while pushing through difficult reforms to make them affordable in the future, Mr da Silva will need to show the great negotiating powers he boasted of in his campaign.
But UMNO hardliners may make reform difficult.
Lloyd Axworthy, who led the election observers here for the Organization of American States, said having so many movements could make reform difficult.
The four horsemen of our current border apocalypse -- xenophobia, the migrants' need to work to feed their families, the profit motive that drives more border fencing, unmanned drones and private immigration jails, and a visa quota system completely out of touch with reality -- combine and conspire to make reform difficult and unlikely, at least in the short run.
The protests could make the government reluctant or unable to take on politically difficult reforms because it will fear opposition from activists and other political parties.
