Is the
European Union a democracy? The Europeans and most
others will argue yes, but there are many different
degrees of democracy. Many Europeans increasingly
feel powerless when it comes to their national
government and particularly that of the EU, and for
good reason. Despite the fact that many of the
nations of Europe are much older than the U.S., all
of their democracies are much younger (with the
partial exception of Switzerland), most have only
been real democracies for the last several decades,
and even less for the former communist states.
Many of the European countries have moved from a
monarchal authoritarianism to a socialist
authoritarianism, without really building democratic
institutions to protect the individual from the
government, like those that exist in the U.S. and
Switzerland.
When a small group meets and votes for its
leaders and almost all issues of importance, we call
that process "direct democracy." America had such a
system in many towns, the most famous were the New
England town meetings. In these towns, the citizens
came together to make many of the decisions as to
how they would be governed, including how they would
be taxed and how the money would be spent. Most
countries, including the U.S., now have
"representative democracies," whereby people elect
"representatives" to voice their views in various
legislative bodies.
Where the citizens know and can directly
interact with their representatives, and the
representatives fear they will lose their positions
if they do not reflect the will of the local
majority, the process tends to work reasonably well.
Many of the major European countries have
developed a top down political system rather than a
bottom up one. Top down is a system where a small
group of political elites decides what it thinks is
best for the people. France is a prime example. Most
of the French political leaders went to the same,
very small, elite school in Paris and developed a
very tight "old boy network," hence the left-leaning
and so-called right-leaning leaders are all fans of
"big government" where they have control. The
parliamentarians are all very firmly controlled by
the party leaders; hence, unlike the U.S.,
dissenting votes are rare.
In the U.S. Congress, the leaders are forever
negotiating with their own party members, attempting
to create voting majorities. Most members of the
U.S. House and Senate have their primary allegiance
to their own voters rather than to their party or
its leadership.
In Europe, it is quite the opposite. The rank
and file members of the parliaments owe their
primary allegiance to their party leaders, because
if they dissent, they will be kicked off the list of
who can "stand" (i.e., represent) the party in a
given district. As a result, elected representatives
tend not to make themselves readily available
directly to their constituents as is done in the
U.S.
The British Conservative party leader David
Cameron has just announced that the party will not
push for tax cuts in the next election. The
Thatcherite wing of the party is outraged and
believes it to be both bad economics (which it is)
and bad politics; but because of central party
control, virtually all of the Conservative
candidates standing for the next election will have
to buy into the no tax cut position in order to be
selected to run.
Another factor leading to non-democratic
centralism in Europe is that public-owned and
-influenced TV is much more dominant in Europe than
in the U.S. As would be expected, the journalists in
the public-owned TV stations tend to favor big
government (which is natural since that is where
they get their salary checks). The most famous and
notorious public-owned broadcasting entity is the
BBC. The BBC has several TV networks in Britain and
is rapidly expanding throughout the world, including
the U.S., because it has a direct source of revenue;
that is, a very hefty mandatory tax on each TV set
in Britain. The BBC is also greatly expanding its
local news coverage, attempting to crowd out local
newspapers. The BBC editorial and news positions are
consistently hostile to those who favor limited
government and lower taxes.
Thus, the free market democratic forces in
Britain, as well as other European countries, are at
a double disadvantage in that they need to fight the
big state centralism, which can dole out favors from
the public purse, and they are constantly attacked
by the state-owned or -influenced media. Given that
neither the political elite nor the media really
like democracy, it and its necessary conditions are
steadily being undermined in Europe. This democratic
deficit has led to (or is a result of) excess
statism which, in turn, has destroyed much of the
economic vitality of the continent.
The one bright spot is the recent rise of
limited government, free market activist groups,
such as the TaxPayers' Alliance in Britain, and
Liberte Cherie (i.e., cherished liberty) in France.
These groups are led by intelligent and
highly-motivated young professionals who understand
the need for fundamental change and are willing to
fight for it.
Copyright © 2006
The Washington Times LLC.
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