(Left) Martin Kastler, a European Parliament member, and his family. He wants a law barring shops all across Europe from opening on Sundays.Read the posts below about populism, public opinion and policy on the domestic front below. Not so different in what some call the United States of Europe, the European Union.
One of the major criticisms of the EU has been the democratic deficit. The administrators are powerful. The nations are well-represented. The European bank has real economic clout. The EU court has wide sway in human rights. But the EU parliament, representing the citizens, seems the least influential body.
Here's a suggestion for change. As reported by the NY Times:
Europe Turns Ear Toward Voice of the People
The way Martin Kastler sees it, there ought to be a law prohibiting shops all across Europe from opening on Sundays, much as there has been for generations in his native Bavaria.
He has already begun collecting signatures of support. And soon, courtesy of a little debated clause in the new Lisbon Treaty, the European Union may be obliged to consider drawing up such legislation…
Long criticized as lacking democratic accountability, the European Union is about to give its 500 million citizens more say — if they can collect one million supporting signatures from a “significant” number of member countries…
[E]xperts say the European Union could soon see petitions on subjects as varied as banning bullfighting, burqas and genetically modified food; curbing offshore drilling; introducing new taxes; ending the exchange of financial data with the United States; and keeping Turkey out of the union.
Proponents hope the initiatives will be something of a team building exercise, too. Forced to collect signatures across borders, Europeans will finally, they hope, get to know one another, engage in Europewide debates and develop the elusive “European identity.”
But others see trouble brewing. What if the voice of the people turns out to be racist, politically unwieldy (think California referendums) or just plain frivolous? One online campaign in Portugal to force members of the national soccer team to grow mustaches claimed the support of 60,000 people recently…
(From Teaching Comparative.Com)
1 comment:
As much as racism horrifies me, Petition and referendum are good things for government and society. If it were not for populism, democracy and republicanism (both in an international sense) would not have come to life in Athens, Boston, Dublin, or Paris.
Most people are not racist- therefore in theory racist referendum will not be passed. And at least in Europe, most people have common sense, and know frivolity is frivolity.
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