Justice Scalia, on the corrupt, single party patronage system in New York's courts:

“Party conventions, with their attendant 'smoke-filled rooms' and domination by party leaders, have long been an accepted manner of selecting party candidates,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, in a decision that provided ample reminders that judges are politicians as well as somber, black-robed jurists.

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"The reason one-party rule is entrenched may be (and usually is) that voters approve of the positions and candidates that the party regularly puts forward," Justice Scalia wrote.

Scalia is, of course, not the only person to take this view in modern politics.

President Hu Jintao said attempts to modernize China’s political system must not jeopardize one-party rule, setting a conservative tone before an important Communist Party conclave in the fall.

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Such changes should “advance the self-perfection in the development of the socialist political system,” while preserving the Communist Party’s monopoly on political power, he said.

“Insist on the party’s leadership, governance by the people and ruling the nation by laws,” he said.