The Bundesverfassungsgericht, Germany’s constitutional court, has ruled that before Germany can ratify the Lisbon Treaty new legislation must be enacted, strengthening the national parliament's involvement in any major decision-making. It would be nice if some MP asked if the British Parliament is going to insist on the same rights.
But there is more to this than a bit of Lisbon-bashing (on which I am as keen as anyone else). The major European treaties are gradually ushering in what some political scientists are referring to as the post democratic age, and this utterance of the BVG may just be the last gasp of the nation state. Plans are being made to promulgate a new politics for the supranational state.
Federalists in Germany, led by the loathsome Joska Fischer, have thrown their arms up in horror at the idea that the directly elected representatives of the people should seek to control what is taking place on their behalf in Brussels. The new philosophy in Europe is called ‘Output Democracy’ which means that the executive doesn’t need to be told of the wishes of the people, but that its legitimacy depends on its output. As Der Spiegel puts it ‘In other words, the Brussels bureaucracy no longer needs to ask itself: What is the interest of citizens? Instead, it can ask itself: What is in the interest of citizens?’
The problem with this system, which looms large for anyone with a taste for ‘old fashioned’ democracy, is how to you get rid of them when their output is no good? What exactly is the procedure for the people of Europe sacking a European Commissioner? (Don’t bother looking, there isn’t one).
When you factor into this the fact that the executive controls the propaganda – Brussels multi-million euro ‘information’ departments - you have a self-perpetuating political elite, a dictatorship of people who know what’s best for you.
And if you are horrified that this should be happening, well, I'm afraid we wished it on ourselves. As for me I congratulate the Germans on being able to look squarely at this while the rest of us have looked the other way, and hope we can learn from them.
But there is more to this than a bit of Lisbon-bashing (on which I am as keen as anyone else). The major European treaties are gradually ushering in what some political scientists are referring to as the post democratic age, and this utterance of the BVG may just be the last gasp of the nation state. Plans are being made to promulgate a new politics for the supranational state.
Federalists in Germany, led by the loathsome Joska Fischer, have thrown their arms up in horror at the idea that the directly elected representatives of the people should seek to control what is taking place on their behalf in Brussels. The new philosophy in Europe is called ‘Output Democracy’ which means that the executive doesn’t need to be told of the wishes of the people, but that its legitimacy depends on its output. As Der Spiegel puts it ‘In other words, the Brussels bureaucracy no longer needs to ask itself: What is the interest of citizens? Instead, it can ask itself: What is in the interest of citizens?’
The problem with this system, which looms large for anyone with a taste for ‘old fashioned’ democracy, is how to you get rid of them when their output is no good? What exactly is the procedure for the people of Europe sacking a European Commissioner? (Don’t bother looking, there isn’t one).
When you factor into this the fact that the executive controls the propaganda – Brussels multi-million euro ‘information’ departments - you have a self-perpetuating political elite, a dictatorship of people who know what’s best for you.
And if you are horrified that this should be happening, well, I'm afraid we wished it on ourselves. As for me I congratulate the Germans on being able to look squarely at this while the rest of us have looked the other way, and hope we can learn from them.
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