The current crises in the US and Europe indicate that political paralysis has become a major hurdle to solving the West's economic woes, as politicians focus more on personal gains than the long-term interests of their nations, according to Michael Schuman in a blog on the website of TIME Magazine on August 3, 2011.

The electoral politics in a modern democracy prompt the politicians of the West to choose the narrow interests of electoral victories over the greater, long-term good of their nations, said Schuman, a correspondent for TIME. "In the US, both Republicans and Democrats took positions in the debt debate aimed at protecting their loyal voters. In Europe, political leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel make decisions on how to fight the euro crisis with one eye on voters back home. Rather than focusing on closing deficits, improving economic competitiveness or forwarding the dream of European integration, they're looking no further than the next vote count."

The result is a dangerous inaction where real problems and real decisions just get kicked down the road, noted Schuman. "In the US, the true task of shoring up national finances was left generally unresolved in this week's (sic) debt deal, to be debated and debated again another day. In Europe, the hard choices needed to save the euro – sacrificing more sovereignty in a quest for a functioning union – are restricted to a bunch of paper pronouncements, not real, active policy."

Modern democracies are becoming increasingly unfair, warned Schuman. Actually, they are degraded into "systems that give rich Americans and oil companies tax breaks while the unemployed suffer, or that continue to protect unproductive Greek government employees while stifling hard-working entrepreneurs".

The politicians of the West have to make tough decisions, Schuman said, if they are to resolve their debt problems and compete in the global economy decades from now. "That may mean selling the right policies to their constituents rather than allowing their constituents to dictate policy. Our politicians have to awaken to the truth that the purpose of holding public office is not to perpetuate holding public office. The goal (as Confucius would say) is to do the right thing, whatever the consequences."