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Nobody in the European Commission has even been elected!

So what? No one in the Swedish government has been elected either and that's doesn't make it any less legitimate.

I might also add that the EP is directly elected.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Sun Jun 15th, 2008 at 09:21:17 AM EST
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So you're saying that democracy doesn't exist in Sweden either? OK.
by vladimir on Sun Jun 15th, 2008 at 09:24:10 AM EST
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No, I'm saying that just because the people in the executive branch are not directly elected doesn't mean you don't have a democracy. It's usually called parliamentarism. Maybe you should try it.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Sun Jun 15th, 2008 at 09:27:29 AM EST
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Don't you think that a system which allows the people to elect their representatives in the legislative AND the executibe branch is more democratic than one where only the legislative branch is elected by the people?
From my experience in the poll booths, this is the case in France today.
by vladimir on Sun Jun 15th, 2008 at 09:31:42 AM EST
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Having a directly elected executive branch often results in people electing Strong Leaders (tm) who run roughshod over parliaments. I think the experience in Europe over the last century is that this is a very bad thing. I'd much rather see a strong parliament controlling and balancing the executive branch. This, the formally strong but in practice very weak parliament I'd say is the biggest weakness of Swedish democracy, not the other way around.

And then we also have a very biased media, but I won't touch that issue here.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Sun Jun 15th, 2008 at 09:37:30 AM EST
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What should we say about the french parliament then...

sigh.

A free fox in a free henhouse!

by Xavier in Paris on Sun Jun 15th, 2008 at 03:39:02 PM EST
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