loya jirga

New York Times columnist David Brooks (starting Sept. 19, 2007, no longer behind the TimesSelect wall) reports on US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's new health care plan, noting that her ideal style of policy-making reminds him of loya jirga, a Pashto language term for "a meeting of tribal leaders":

"It began to sound like a health care loya jirga — indicative of the political vision that has marked so much of her thinking over the years.... When she's asked to describe a system that works, she describes diverse people coming together around a big table to reach a consensus.
"That's the sort of national community her plan is supposed to foster and that's the sort of process she used to create it. "

Link: Hillary Clinton, From Revolution to Evolution - New York Times