Concrete Achievements

Tag: democracy

  • Today’s #euco discussions on the #eubudget and #NextGenerationEU fund show that Europe…

    Today’s #euco discussions on the #eubudget and #NextGenerationEU fund show that Europe needs a Madisonian moment to go with its (not-quite) Hamiltonian one.

    Case number 1: @MinPres Mark Rutte saying that the Dutch government wants guarantees about the effectiveness of reforms in “southern” countries.

    Case number 2: Victor Orban’s parliament insisting that there should be no conditionality on rule of law, and that the Article 7 procedure against Hungary should be dropped in return for a budget deal.

    There are obviously lots of competing demands in the #eubudget process – but these are the two that clarify the problem. In both cases a member state is trying to push its own view of the world on others, with the budget process as a tool.

    Why does this matter? Because the #NextGenerationEU COVID recovery fund means the EU will be borrowing as a Union, and the proposals on how the money gets paid back may mean more EU-level taxes. That’s what’s been called the “Hamiltonian moment” for EU finances.

    (It isn’t quite, because Hamilton took on the existing debts of the states, this is just creating new common debt, but you can see how one might gradually lead to another).

    However, Rutte and Orban show that common financing won’t work if the politics of EU finance stay stuck in “what I pay and what I get” mode. Rutte is quite right that the Dutch public deserve democratic oversight of the money they are spending

    but quite wrong that this oversight should pass through him. It should go through the Parliament and the executive at EU level – particularly if they are also raising the money to pay for it.

    This isn’t just a EU issue, it’s about accountability and efficiency. If the EU institutions have power to raise funds, but national governments get the blame, it’s an invitation to wasteful spending on boondoggles and pet projects.

    Similarly, if Orban or other autocratic governments can hold budgetary processes hostage for their antidemocratic crusades, illiberal cronyism will run rampant.

    “Treaty Change” is the longest four letter word in Brussels, but it’s time for a serious conversation about how democracy and accountability need to go alongside new debt raising and tax raising powers. (end)

  • It goes without saying that the #ConventionCitoyenne is a great result from the…

    It goes without saying that the #ConventionCitoyenne is a great result from the perspective of deliberative democracy, and a lot of credit should go to @MPubliques and others for making it a reality. But…

    What was interesting in Macron’s response to it was not so much the response itself (he disagreed with some things, agreed with most and made some announcements) but the commentary on Twitter.

    (Twitter, you might say, is not all of politics, or even a representative sample – and you’re right. But it does drive a lot of opinion coverage and journalism, so in this context it’s interesting)

    The comments were often positive about the convention members and process themselves (not always, a few talked about them being “crazy greens” or criticized them for refusing to put all their proposals to referendums).

    The real hostility was reserved for Macron. Far-right shoutbot Eric Zemmour demanded “a citizen convention on immigration”, saying he’d be happy to chair it. Many pointed out that Macron disapproved of a dividend tax, others that he had accepted too many green recommendations.

    It all felt quite … normal. That’s a good thing, in one way. Very few people were saying that this was an unjust or invalid way of creating policy recommendations. This kind of deliberative event feels like it is reaching the mainstream – the #DelibWave that the @OECDgov

    has been talking about. But normal is also a bad thing, if the recommendations just become footballs for the same old political game. The Convention wasn’t cheap, and it wasn’t easy to arrange. If it’s going to deliver value for the money and citizen time expended,

    it’s going to need to be seen to deliver something that ordinary processes couldn’t. In one way it has – deeply deliberated proposals from citizens. But in some ways it hasn’t – the war horses of politics are lining up on one side or another, preparing for the same old battles.

    This reaction shows that the political system – media, political commentators and politicians – are still squeezing deliberative processes into a representative frame. It will be interesting to see in 3 or 6 months whether the convention’s proposals are still seen as special.

    If the current system doesn’t learn how to handle deliberation, we will always crash into the question of mandates. Macron today said deliberative democracy is a complement to representative democracy, which is true, but it doesn’t relieve the tension.

    Would it have been right for the 150 citizens to be able to compel the executive elected by millions? If not, then is it only the process and their randomness that makes this better than a think tank report?

    On the other hand, if the convention could have compelled, will any future exercise be so hemmed in that they can’t take any meaningful decisions? Models such as that in Ostbelgien can add themselves into representative structures, but it’s far

    easier in a community of 70,000 than in a state the size of France. As I say, the Convention Citoyenne was definitely a milestone, but there is still a lot of road to travel.

  • Links from the week of 8 June 2020

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • This is, once again on COVID, the EU being asked to take action and being constrained by…

    This is, once again on COVID, the EU being asked to take action and being constrained by its rules and competencies. EU level is the *obvious* level to implement this sort of research plan. twitter.com/IlvesToomas/st…

    It’s striking how few people are asking for less Europe during COVID. Its clear that public and policy expectations of the EU have grown to a scale that is beyond its current structure and powers. One of the tasks for the next period is to understand how what the EU can do can be

    brought into alignment with what the public want and need it to do – in a way that is democratic and rooted in ongoing public consent.

    (update to share ERC statement which to say the least contradicts some key elements: erc.europa.eu/news/resignati…)

  • The people who think that no-deal has been defeated are going to get a shock when the UK…

    The people who think that no-deal has been defeated are going to get a shock when the UK leaves the EU and super No-Deal looms in December 2020, with no extensions, no options, no way back to the EU in time.

    Not to get all @iandunt about it, but this is the scene in the superhero movie where you think the baddie is dead but then it turns out they weren’t and that by shooting at them you have enabled them to come back *even stronger*.

    Not that I think there’s a simple alternative: anything that gets put in the WA Bill can just be repealed by a subsequent government. It would need a change the Agreement itself, or finding a widely-acceptable democratic route to stay in the EU.

  • The people who think that no-deal has been defeated are going to get a shock when the UK…

    The people who think that no-deal has been defeated are going to get a shock when the UK leaves the EU and super No-Deal looms in December 2020, with no extensions, no options, no way back to the EU in time.

    Not to get all @iandunt about it, but this is the scene in the superhero movie where you think the baddie is dead but then it turns out they weren’t and that by shooting at them you have enabled them to come back *even stronger*.

    Not that I think there’s a simple alternative: anything that gets put in the WA Bill can just be repealed by a subsequent government. It would need a change the Agreement itself, or finding a widely-acceptable democratic route to stay in the EU.

  • It is instructive to see Rees-Moggs, Lilico, and others who have pompously insisted on…

    It is instructive to see Rees-Moggs, Lilico, and others who have pompously insisted on the supremacy of British institutions for YEARS, turn in an instant to attacking those institutions the moment they stand in the way of their ideological obsession.

    Courts, rule of law, Parliament, democracy itself must all give way to their will. I don’t doubt for a minute that if they could they would pack the courts as much as the Polish government has, and squeeze civil society as much as the Hungarian government has.

    British people appear to think authoritarian nationalism only happens in countries where people have lots of Zs in their surnames. Time to wake up.

  • It is instructive to see Rees-Moggs, Lilico, and others who have pompously insisted on…

    It is instructive to see Rees-Moggs, Lilico, and others who have pompously insisted on the supremacy of British institutions for YEARS, turn in an instant to attacking those institutions the moment they stand in the way of their ideological obsession.

    Courts, rule of law, Parliament, democracy itself must all give way to their will. I don’t doubt for a minute that if they could they would pack the courts as much as the Polish government has, and squeeze civil society as much as the Hungarian government has.

    British people appear to think authoritarian nationalism only happens in countries where people have lots of Zs in their surnames. Time to wake up.

  • Links from the week of 5 August 2019

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Links from the week of 22 July 2019

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.