Clever, powerful, and ironic–I found this item on We Make Money Not Art:

Pneumatic Parliament, an installation by Peter Sloterdijk and Gesa Mueller von der Hagen (Global Instant Objects), is an ironic commentary on democracy an export, ready to use product at a time when it is claimed that freedom and democracy can be spread throughout the Middle East.

The mobile, transparent and self inflating plastic dome can be used all over the world to house parliamentary meetings. It can be transported in a compact container and dropped into regions where a change of political system is deemed “desirable.” Within 90 minutes, the structure can house 160 Members of Parliament, offering the architectural conditions necessary for democratic processes, and as such forms a futurist contribution to the worldwide distribution of Western democratic principles.

The prototype includes a 3D simulations, a model and a credible brochure for the project’s commercial exploitation.

I love this because it’s a really great idea, but only if you subscribe to the exportable democracy theory. It does a fantastic job at highlighting one of the major flaws of Bush’s neo-Wilsonian, not-for-yourself-determination ideal: democracy is about more than establishing institutions and holding votes. Unless a population believes in the institutions, and unless those institutions have real power to deliver food, security, and opportunity, a democracy cannot be expected to flourish.