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How about some European comments on this article by Dick Morris, Bill Clintons former campaign advisor?
Dr. Mordrid
IN EUROPE: DEMOCRACY BEATS BUREAUCRACY
June 1, 2005 -- The French rejection of the European Union's new proposed constitution represents democracy's most outspoken rejection of freedom's worst enemy in the world today: bureaucratism. The true successor to fascism and communism, bureaucratism is the belief of economic, social, intellectual, and cultural elites that they know better than we do what is good for us. It holds Japan in its iron grip -- and has for more than a century. It dominates multi-national organizations like the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations. And it micro-managed every aspect of life in Europe through reams of regulations from the European Union's Brussels headquarters.
Now, the voters of France have said no, halting the bureaucratic power grab in its tracks. The non goes farther than a mere rejection of the Constitution. It is a rejection of government by a self-appointed bureaucracy that sees no particular need to respect the decisions of the people -- and, in fact sees a positive social merit in ignoring them.
Every major political party in France supported the Constitution as did President Jacques Chirac. All newspapers backed it. The entire civic structure of the country urged a yes vote as did almost all the prominent politicians and writers. But the people overwhelmingly voted non.
The revealed disjuncture between the powerful elites and the voters runs deeply through each aspect of modern European life. Seventy percent of the laws passed by the British Parliament, for example, are merely ratifications of regulations promulgated in Brussels.
Democracy is so feeble in the European Union that elected members of the European Parliament cannot introduce legislation. They must confine their function to approving or disapproving the recommendations of the bureaucracy. They can't even amend them significantly. The elected members are kept on a short leash, pacified by large salaries and per diem allowances for each day they show up at Parliament.
Continental European elites, never fully comfortable with democracy since witnessing its ravages in the beer halls of Munich and the streets of Paris, have embraced a "father knows best" approach to governing their irascible herds. Lacking any tradition of checks and balances in their parliamentary systems, they grant bureaucrats who have not been elected the same scope of authority they give prime ministers in their national political systems.
The reaction of the French elites to the voter rejection of the constitution is to blame Chirac for being stupid enough to have asked them in the first place. In his defense, he didn't want to. Incredibly, the powers that run the EU had given member states the right to approve the new Constitution either through parliamentary ratification of voter referendum. Germany opted not even to ask its people. Britain and France did the same. Then the United Kingdom Independence Party -- which opposes the European Union -- scored an amazing upset in the June 10, 2005 European Parliamentary elections, capturing 17% of the seats, an amazing vote for a minor party.
Stunned by the British vote, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that he would submit the constitution to a referendum rather than just pass it through his parliament (a rubber stamp approval in a parliamentary system). After Blair gave in to the forces of democracy, Chirac felt that he had no choice but to follow and the defeat of the document at the polls was the result.
The European Union is really a conscious effort by socialists in France and Germany to promote their social and economic agenda across an entire Continent, it having proven unworkable in just one country. After Mitterrand tried to nationalize industries in France and succeeded only in driving out capital to Britain and the United States, the Continental socialists realized that it was only through European-wide regulation that they could succeed. Socialism -- government ownership -- is no longer their agenda. But government regulation of each aspect of economic and social life has taken its place. And the European Constitution was an effort to extend bureaucratic domination to foreign and defense policy as well.
Like water, democracy finds its own level. It forces its way through the cracks until it is heard. The real answer for Europe is not to abandon the continental project but to make it democratic. Plant and grow the tree -- the democratic superstructure of a state -- before it you hang ornaments, like economic and social regulations, on it. Bureaucratic regulation is only sustainable when it has a democratic core and when citizens have recourse to elected officials to mediate the abuses of the bureaucrats. Europe has neither and it needs both.
June 1, 2005 -- The French rejection of the European Union's new proposed constitution represents democracy's most outspoken rejection of freedom's worst enemy in the world today: bureaucratism. The true successor to fascism and communism, bureaucratism is the belief of economic, social, intellectual, and cultural elites that they know better than we do what is good for us. It holds Japan in its iron grip -- and has for more than a century. It dominates multi-national organizations like the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations. And it micro-managed every aspect of life in Europe through reams of regulations from the European Union's Brussels headquarters.
Now, the voters of France have said no, halting the bureaucratic power grab in its tracks. The non goes farther than a mere rejection of the Constitution. It is a rejection of government by a self-appointed bureaucracy that sees no particular need to respect the decisions of the people -- and, in fact sees a positive social merit in ignoring them.
Every major political party in France supported the Constitution as did President Jacques Chirac. All newspapers backed it. The entire civic structure of the country urged a yes vote as did almost all the prominent politicians and writers. But the people overwhelmingly voted non.
The revealed disjuncture between the powerful elites and the voters runs deeply through each aspect of modern European life. Seventy percent of the laws passed by the British Parliament, for example, are merely ratifications of regulations promulgated in Brussels.
Democracy is so feeble in the European Union that elected members of the European Parliament cannot introduce legislation. They must confine their function to approving or disapproving the recommendations of the bureaucracy. They can't even amend them significantly. The elected members are kept on a short leash, pacified by large salaries and per diem allowances for each day they show up at Parliament.
Continental European elites, never fully comfortable with democracy since witnessing its ravages in the beer halls of Munich and the streets of Paris, have embraced a "father knows best" approach to governing their irascible herds. Lacking any tradition of checks and balances in their parliamentary systems, they grant bureaucrats who have not been elected the same scope of authority they give prime ministers in their national political systems.
The reaction of the French elites to the voter rejection of the constitution is to blame Chirac for being stupid enough to have asked them in the first place. In his defense, he didn't want to. Incredibly, the powers that run the EU had given member states the right to approve the new Constitution either through parliamentary ratification of voter referendum. Germany opted not even to ask its people. Britain and France did the same. Then the United Kingdom Independence Party -- which opposes the European Union -- scored an amazing upset in the June 10, 2005 European Parliamentary elections, capturing 17% of the seats, an amazing vote for a minor party.
Stunned by the British vote, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that he would submit the constitution to a referendum rather than just pass it through his parliament (a rubber stamp approval in a parliamentary system). After Blair gave in to the forces of democracy, Chirac felt that he had no choice but to follow and the defeat of the document at the polls was the result.
The European Union is really a conscious effort by socialists in France and Germany to promote their social and economic agenda across an entire Continent, it having proven unworkable in just one country. After Mitterrand tried to nationalize industries in France and succeeded only in driving out capital to Britain and the United States, the Continental socialists realized that it was only through European-wide regulation that they could succeed. Socialism -- government ownership -- is no longer their agenda. But government regulation of each aspect of economic and social life has taken its place. And the European Constitution was an effort to extend bureaucratic domination to foreign and defense policy as well.
Like water, democracy finds its own level. It forces its way through the cracks until it is heard. The real answer for Europe is not to abandon the continental project but to make it democratic. Plant and grow the tree -- the democratic superstructure of a state -- before it you hang ornaments, like economic and social regulations, on it. Bureaucratic regulation is only sustainable when it has a democratic core and when citizens have recourse to elected officials to mediate the abuses of the bureaucrats. Europe has neither and it needs both.
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