Who knows or cares about the EU?
It seems it's not just a democratic deficit that threatens the future of the European Union. Not only do Europeans not know about EU basics, many of them don't care and don't care that they don't know. What implications do these factors have for the future of the EU?Who cares about Europe?
"Much of the EU’s business may be important, but it is baffling to outsiders—and very dull... "People in Brussels rarely admit this, but the off-putting complexity of the EU has big political consequences...
".. most voters have a limited appetite for information about the EU. A 'vast majority' of focus group members... had no idea how decisions are taken in the union. 'Few' thought that, realistically, they would bother to learn more...
"The public does not want to understand the fiendish complexity of the EU. Many in the EU establishment draw a simple conclusion from that: never ask voters directly about something as complicated as a treaty...
"To many Eurocrats, voter indifference is something to be managed, rather than feared. National health policies are as complex as EU treaties, argues a diplomat, and voters do not expect to understand every detail of how health systems work. This is a tempting argument. But in the longer term, EU leaders are dodging a fundamental question: do you need to seek voters’ informed consent for the European project?
"The answer must surely be yes. The EU is no longer just a free-trade zone. With the advent of things like EU immigration policies, or extraditions without appeal within the union... the EU now touches the essential contract between the citizen and the state...
"How, then, can the EU obtain consent? Two answers suggest themselves, both seemingly rather extreme. One involves much more federalism; the other is a strict commitment to keeping the EU as an intergovernmental club, in which national parliaments and national governments are dominant...
"It is to their credit that federalists do not think voter indifference to the EU can be ignored. Many say, at least in private, that the EU needs more democratic legitimacy. They worry about the fact that voter turnout has fallen at each European Parliament election...
"[N]ational politicians are to blame for some of the EU’s worst failures (such as fisheries). But the EU’s best hope of enjoying democratic support for its extravagantly complex workings is a devolved form of consent, channelled through national representatives..."
Labels: concepts, democratization, EU, political culture
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:37 AM
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