| Two articles that have made me think this week. The first was Anatole Kaletsky in The Times. He was writing about democracy in the higher parts of the EU and comparing it with the USA. The EU is an extraordinary achievement in it's first 46 years but we have ended up with a situation where it is ultimately governed by an unnaccountable and unelected group of politicians each of which can go back to their populace and say "It's not my fault, it's all the others". This raises the question of where we can find the EU equivalent of the US Constitution and it's checks and balances. There's a huge difference here that the founding fathers were a bunch of revolutionaries who were trying to build something in stark contrast to the oppression they perceived of the previous system. The resulting constitution is a succinct model of clarity with a clear vision of a democratic future even if some of it has been whittled away by 200 years of case law and political double dealing. The EU though has been built by politicians with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and increasing their own power. And we've allowed them to do it, because we (the populace) were largely uninterested in what they were doing. The second piece was Simon Jenkins bemoaning the strait jacket that central government (and specifically) Prescott puts on regional government and particularly local City government in the UK. Most countries in Europe (and the USA) have found some balance whereby City level groupings can enjoy significant self government. The net result is places such as Barcelona re-inventing themselves as vibrant and forward looking places, while equivalents in the UK such as Manchester or Newcastle ultimately fail to move forward. That's a simplistic view that ignores the great strides that these places have made in small areas. But there seems no doubt that the obession with central control and ring fencing of finances is holding back our second cities. Which all re-inforces a political belief that I've had for some time. Increasingly I think we have to find ways of governing at an appropriate level. That means making the big decisions at the big level but allowing room for the local decisions to be made at the local level. Which then means having the structures in place for EU, Country, Region, County/State, City, Town/Street. If we can achieve this, it will have a side effect on people's sense of belonging. And they may well have more sense of belonging to the smaller levels than to their Country. In real terms this might mean, say the Welsh thinking of themselves as Welsh, European and only third, British. [from: JB Ecademy] |
[ << What I Learned on Linux Lunacy - Doc Searls ] [ Microsoft's Weblog Software >> ]
[ 01-Nov-02 1:06pm ]
