V. Oskanian: "Armenia has a single-party system"
"Despite the fact that there are five parties in parliament, we have a single-party system, accountable to its own power clique only," said former RA Foreign Minister, President of Civilitas Foundation, Vardan Oskanian.
According to him, only when Armenia dissolves this centralized power system, this political monopoly, only then the other issues can be tackled
In the interview posted on Civilitas Foundation's website, Vardan Oskanian says that according to international financial institutions, a country like Armenia should have a tax collection rate of around 22 percent.
"Armenia is actually collecting only 17 percent of GDP. The five percent difference means 193 billion Dram less in taxes, less in the state budget then we could have had. Our entire defense budget is less than that amount. That's exactly the amount we spend on social security - imagine being able to double that," said Vardan Oskanian.
Oskanian also said all this can be corrected if we stop pretending to be a democracy, and instead, actually embrace the values that make up democracy.
"Pretending to be a democracy is worse, because then people will cling to empty hopes. Democracy is not just about good elections. That's important, but not sufficient. Democracy means embracing the best of values - tolerance, liberalism, and most important - rule of law," said Vardan Oskanian.
