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It was a huge departure from the political status quo and went against any appeal to populism. It was, I think, a hugely unpopular commitment and took a huge amount of effort and commitment to steer through the administrative bureaucracy and public opinion. I think that the genesis was a personal appeal to the President who then included the commitment after all draughts of his address were finalised. Basically one man had the power to say 'make it so.'
benborp-
It was a huge departure from the political status quo and went against any appeal to populism. It was, I think, a hugely unpopular commitment and took a huge amount of effort and commitment to steer through the administrative bureaucracy and public opinion.
Sounds like governmental suicide. Was it Chirac? Did he get away with it because the only alternative at that time was the National Front, and he was riding a landslide?
Howard
It's pretty cool, yes. And when people could see their self interest it's also hardly surprising. What the WHO can't say with any certainty is whether the political will created the need for change, or whether the people had the need, i.e. self interest, and the politicians enabled the change, or both. As Hefty says, things were pretty bad, and the upsides pretty obvious for everyone. They weren't asking people who drive to be nice to people who cycle or take more care around vulnerable road users, were they? Or were they?