“Voters aren’t the heart of democracy”

Posted by Marc Hodak on June 15, 2008 under Politics | 3 Comments to Read

That was pretty much the bitter rejoinder on the Irish EU vote from the former Belgian prime minister, who helped draft the original EU constitution that went down in France and Holland.

The defeat of the original constitution led to the newer, slightly stripped down version that the Irish rejected on Friday. The main differences between the Lisbon Treaty and the previously rejected EU constitution appeared to be (a) changing the name from a “constitution” to a “treaty,” and (b) preventing as best as possible its submission to a popular vote.

Unfortunately for the Eurocrats, the Irish constitution required such a vote, so at least their people had a voice in the matter.

Let’s be clear about why the Lisbon Treaty went down in flames: The people couldn’t understand it. The treaty comprised 356 amendments to the existing EU charter, as well as various other protocols, declarations, and other gobbledygook that made sense to no one outside of Brussels. So, the Irish people were forced to look to their leaders for an indication. But they couldn’t–or wouldn’t–explain what it meant. In fact, their leaders had not read it either. Instead, the people got an earful from their elected officials, and those from the rest of Europe, telling them how they had to vote. The people weighed their trust in these endorsements, and voted “No.”

The vanity of politicians is that since the people vote for them, the people must like them and believe in them. They forget that most people regard elections as an unpalatable choice.