IN MARCH ministers of the South Korean parliament set a modern world record by speaking for 192 hours to delay an anti-terror bill that would maintain given sweeping powers of surveillance to the country’s intelligence services. In the nine-day speechathon,some lawmakers wore trainers and read out passages from George Orwell’s "1984". Despite their doggedness, the bill passed. Theirs was a long shot anyway. The ministers would maintain had to proceed on for another eight days to block the bill. But this was an extreme example of an obstructive action known as filibustering that can play an important fragment in political and legislative systems. The filibuster is a parliamentary process that offers lawmakers the means to delay a vote on a proposed legislation by making long and sometimes irrelevant speeches. It is meant to supply the minority party a voice. It may maintain its origins in the Roman era: Cato the Younger would speak relentlessly to oppose a bill until sunset (the rules demanded that all Roman Senate trade be concluded before nightfall). Today, or filibustering can be a test of physical endurance. Beginning on August 28th 1957,Strom...
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Source: economist.com