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Vote Match EU 2009 | 24 comments (24 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Vote Match EU 2009 (none / 0)
Given this result, it worries me that 53% of test-takers would disagree with a ban on the transport of live animals (one of the uglier sides of Transalpine traffic in particular). Also that 54% don't understand/approve of parliamentarism/or can't even distinguish Commission and Council, and want a directly elected Commission President.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Wed May 27th, 2009 at 08:40:41 AM EST
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Re: Vote Match EU 2009 (none / 0)
I felt that question needed a reminder that it was Commission President at issue, not the vaguely-understood Lisbon new Council President.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 27th, 2009 at 08:45:57 AM EST
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Re: Vote Match EU 2009 (4.00 / 2)
Well, my view is clear, I think, in my other post. The problem with European issues is that many of them would need a reminder... I passed the test to my mother, which I really consider an informed person, and I was surprised about the issues not related with EU procedires but with EU policies and recent debates that were new to her, or just did saw the point of treating them at European level.

I know this is a sociological fallacy example, but anyway...

(Sociological fallacy "fast" definition=taking one´s own experiences as representative and/or explicative of sociological trends)

"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." (Fahrenheit 451)

by pereulok on Wed May 27th, 2009 at 01:30:47 PM EST
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Re: Vote Match EU 2009 (4.00 / 2)
Well, what would you suggest? Leave the uninformed voters out? That was one of the two main theoretical reasons why vote was related to a minimal income in the 19th Century (considering that in general property=education, on the one side, and that it you don´t have property shouldn´t be deciding on othr people's property, on the other).

I´m exagerating, I know you don´t mean that, but...

I mean, let´s be fair, European Union has a very deep citizenship problem, with most of the Europeans uninformed AND uninterested. Democratization of institutions must be done taking into account this situation, that in fact helps options 1) based in demagogic discourses easy to understand and feel; 2) with very good marketing campaign; and 3) based in national -NOT European- issues [Spain example, agree or not with Zapatero anticrisis plan]

What EU can do is:

  1. Try to be democratic but, wit resoect of the development of European political culture, not expecting too much in few time.
  2. Promote European political culture. HOWEVER: EU political system (if you can consider it so, I still don´t) is being built in a sociopolitical context of general desinterest about politics. Don´t expect citizens that don´t believe in "sound", "long-lasting" political systems to be emotionally and even rationally involved in a political system (the European) that copy liberal democracy schemes, just in a bigger scope and with more complicated procedures. EU system isn´t nowadays something in which development you can see the way out of the crisis of liberal democracy.


"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." (Fahrenheit 451)
by pereulok on Wed May 27th, 2009 at 01:23:21 PM EST
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Re: Vote Match EU 2009 (none / 1)
Well, what would you suggest? Leave the uninformed voters out?

I'm not suggesting anything, I'm just worried by the prevalence of such views even in an apparently Green-tilted sample.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Wed May 27th, 2009 at 01:42:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Vote Match EU 2009 (none / 1)
..where I note that one that

  1. I didn't have a (big) problem with the majority views on the other 23 questions,

  2. regarding the second of the two worrying me, I am very much aware that Presidentism/royalism (as a popular personification of politics) is popular in the general populace of almost every democratic unit, whether they actually have it or have something else (i.e. parliament-based PM and/or direct democracy).


*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Wed May 27th, 2009 at 01:47:54 PM EST
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Re: Vote Match EU 2009 (none / 1)
Well, transport of animals across borders is kind of a wooly issue. In Denmark, you can barely go two hundred km without hitting a border, after all, while in Germany or France, you can go a thousand km or more and never see one.

A cap on the duration of transport of live animals (and regulation of the ways they are transported) would make more sense.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu May 28th, 2009 at 06:26:19 PM EST
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Vote Match EU 2009 | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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