Democratic Deficit

I read that the French voting public are unexpectedly close to a “Non!” on the proposed EU Constitution…

There’s generally a democratic deficit in the enlargement of an empire. Expansion of a political territory usually requires levies and increased taxation upon the core members and capital and labor transfers to the periphery. Not to mention expanded military expenditures to defend ever-larger borders.

I’d wager that had most of the Empires of history bothered to ask their citizens in direct ballots whether they approved of expansion, anschluss, or ascession of various new territories, there would have been more than a few “No” votes.

I really think that had every State in the US had had to conduct plebiscites upon the acquisition of or entry of a new State, things would not have proceeded as smoothly as they did. Apparently the United States delegates complete authority concerning enlargement to its federal Congress, removing the notion of popular, devolved assent of existing citizens almost completely from the process.

By contrast, the EU is quite very particular, thus far, about enabling its citizens, through national votes, to approve or reject the enlargement of or political reconstitution of the Union. In comparison to other empires of history, this has produced several hiccups along the way, but has managed nonetheless to advance this far without a single legion, military blockade, or genocide. And the political hurly-burly does have the welcome theatrical effect of sending politicians madly scrambling when their desires are rejected by a national population.

Finally, should an EU nation grow tired of the “undemocratic , unpopular bureaucracy”, they can easily trade it in for some home-grown nonsense by unilaterally withdrawing from some or all of the EU political structure. Greenland, for example, withdrew from the EC in 1985. The Maastricht Treaty is really quite a relatively representative document, as far as empire-creating concordats go. Should a European country not wish to give up sovereignty to a federal system, there are a number of parallel European integration structures they can join or remain members of, such as the EEA or the EFTA. Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, for example, have elected to join or remain within these political structures without joining the EU.

Once within the United States, a State cannot decide to unilaterally secede, and any such attempts have been and will be resisted by the federal government. So it really doesn’t matter how or why a State’s population might vote in that matter: their wishes will be abrogated by military force. I can’t think of a more classic example of bureaucratic fiat overriding democratic wishes.