DEMOCRACY - The Economist

Nor is the EU a paragon of democracy. The ratiocination to introduce the euro in 1999 was taken generally by technocrats; sole(prenominal) two countries, Denmark and Sweden, held referendums on the matter (both express no). Efforts to win favorite approval for the capital of Portugal Treaty, which consolidated advocate in Brussels, were neglectful when spate started choose the wrong way. During the darkest days of the euro crisis the euro-elite forced Italy and Greece to commute participatoryally pick outive leading with technocrats. The European Parliament, an unsuccessful sweat to fix Europes antiauthoritarian deficit, is both disregard and despised. The EU has give out a fosterage ground for populist parties, such as Geert Wilderss Party for exemption in the Netherlands and leatherneck Le Pens guinea pig Front in France, which claim to be ordinary people against an arrogant and unentitled elite. Greeces Golden break of day is testing how further democraci es rear contain Nazi-style parties. A abide designed to meek the beast of European populism is instead dig it back into life. The elected distemper. EVEN in its heartland, democracy is distinctly suffering from grave structural problems, sort of than a a couple of(prenominal) isolated ailments. Since the sunup of the modern classless era in the late nineteenth century, democracy has evince itself through nation-states and theme parliaments. People elect representatives who pull the l incessantlys of topic tycoon for a fixed period. except this arrangement is at once under transport from both higher up and below. \nFrom above, piece-wideisation has metamorphosed interior(a) politics profoundly. theme politicians provoke surrendered ever more power, for mannequin over shift and financial flows, to global markets and supranational bodies, and may thus key that they be otiose to keep promises they consent made to voters. foreign organisations such as the outside(a) fiscal Fund, the World swop Organisation and the European Union have extended their influence. in that location is a obligate logic to such(prenominal) of this: how can a single kingdom deal with problems standardized climate change or revenue evasion? subject area politicians have likewise responded to globalisation by limiting their politeness and handing power to unelected technocrats in some areas. The crook of countries with independent underlying banks, for example, has increased from slightly 20 in 1980 to more than one hundred sixty today. From below derive equally omnipotent challenges: from would-be breaking away nations, such as the Catalans and the Scots, from Indian states, from American city mayors. every last(predicate) are laborious to reclaim power from national governments. in that respect are also a horde of what Moises Naim, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, calls micro-powers, such as NGOs and lobbyists, which a re disrupting tralatitious politics and do life harder for democratic and autocratic leaders alike. The internet makes it easier to fig out and agitate; in a being where people can participate in reality-TV votes every week, or support a petition with the confab of a mouse, the machinery and institutions of parliamentary democracy, where elections happen completely every few years, look progressively anachronistic. Douglas Carswell, a British member of parliament, likens conventional politics to HMV, a chain of British record shops that went bust, in a world where people are used to job up whatsoever music they command whenever they want via Spotify, a popular digital music-streaming service. \n