Germany bans referendums. The reason being that Hitler used referendums to consolidate his power and they do not want a repeat of that. Does that make Germany undemocratic?
That was how one of the arguments against the need for referendums in Ireland was made. Now one thing that many people forget about Hitler was that he got elected to the Reichstags. Would that justify Germany not holding elections? I mean it is the next logical step in that thought process. Does the fact Germany does not hold referendums make Ireland wrong to have referendums?
Much of the arguments against having a referendum in Ireland is that Lisbon was too difficult a treaty to explain and hence why the rest of Europe did not have referendums. But is there something fundamentally wrong when people in charge are scared to ask the people they represent what they think? Is the EU so insecure about itself that it does not want to ask the people? Before the French and Dutch rejections the constitution was put to the people. It was similarly complex and yet they put it to referendums many of which were merely consultative because they knew that a vote by the people gave the project more legitimacy. But they lost and now seem scared of the peoples views.
Power comes from the people. Anyone who believes in that should not be scared to let them wield it.
0 Thriftcriminal Jul 14th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Yes, but power is given, not taken. The electorate of most western countries votes in a government to deal with the running of the country so that they can get on with their living their lives (and buying lots of shit they don’t need). In the process the electorate tends to abdicate all responsibility and (unless life gets shitty) interest. This leaves the government and civil service free to look after themselves and as long as the system keeps going steady, scratch their holes. There is no vision beyond “give the people the freedom and ability to buy shit they don’t need and all will be well”, which is fine today and tomorrow, but next year and the year after? I want vision from my politicians and I want to be able to exert influence over their decisions, does no one else? And if they do are they busy going “Yeah, that’d be cool, but hey what can I do?”
0 V Jul 16th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Correct, and that becomes a severe problem when it comes to the EU. How many people on the street knows what “Coreper 1 and 2″ is? And that is the basic stuff. An EU politics course should be compulsory for all second level students in Ireland, just as History is for Germans.
We have the most proportional electoral system in the world and we still need referendums? No, it’s a circus for loopers every time, and always has been.
Let’s just take responsibility for our own ignorance and stupidity for once and stop acting like weekend revolutionaries.