What or who runs the city-state?

As I approach the end of The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance by Paul Strathern, it appears to me, that so many similarities can be drawn between the political lessons gain thru the renaissance and the development of SIN, in particular thru the eyes of the Medici famly and thru the ideas of Machiavelli. Power I guess is such a perculiar thing, it is something which people seek to obtain, and yet in turn, it is power which controls the individual.

Furthermore, the relationship between Renaissance Florence and the Medici, is also rather similar to what we see today on this island city state. While the Florentine were displeased with the extent of the grip on power held by the Medici, the recognise that it was the Medici which gave them peace and prosperity.

What Tom DeLay said recently when he left congress, is perhaps something worth giving some thought to.

"You show me a nation without partisanship, and I'll show you a tyranny," ... "It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle."- Tom DeLay, 8 Jun 2006