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The point of representative democracy is that the representatives are supposed to be representing their constituents. So when our elected representatives are deeply out of touch with their constituents - as they manifestly are on the EU issue - it is a failure of democracy. We can debate argue about where the failure is;

Is it that the voters are stupid? That the politicians aren't representing the best interests of the voters? That the decision-making architecture of the EU has fundamental design flaws? That state-level public debate fails to consider the federal issues? That the voters deem the federal level unimportant? All of the above?

But whichever our answer to where the democratic failure originated, there is no denying that a political class that's 90 % pro-EU and a public that's 40 % pro-EU and 20 % don't-know-don't-care signals a failure of democracy somewhere.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 12:29:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
IMO the cause is cowardice and cronical absence of a spinal chord to many politicians.
They got just so used to deciding one thing in Brussels, than going home and saying something else, mainly that "Brussels" impose "its" regulations on "us".

I just wanted to point out that "Brussels" is our own elected, not some bureaucratical class parachuted from planet Mars.

Voters are not stupid, but (I think Frank said that already) the constitution is too technical. Referendums must be made on simple questions ending in yes, or no, not a 200 pages cryptical diplomatic formulations + annexes.

So this is where the difference between the public and the political class comes from, IMO.

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)

by ValentinD (walentijn arobase free spot frança) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:58:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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