There is this article in The Boston Globe that has been nagging my mind for a few days now: Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change. »
Despite the dramatic headline, this is not about conspiracy theories. It’s about Tufts University political scientist (and former legal counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a consultant to various congressional committees, as well as to the State Department) Michael J. Glennon and his book National Security and Double Government.
The core issue is the Obama u-turn on national security.
“But six years into his administration, the Obama version of national security looks almost indistinguishable from the one he inherited. Guantanamo Bay remains open. The NSA has, if anything, become more aggressive in monitoring Americans. Drone strikes have escalated. Most recently it was reported that the same president who won a Nobel Prize in part for promoting nuclear disarmament is spending up to $1 trillion modernizing and revitalizing America’s nuclear weapons.”
The thing, according to Glennon, is that politicians are generalists–in the hands of their own administration and its experts. And these experts have many reasons to exaggerate threats.
That sounds like a plausible and reasonable analysis. Even though the word “generalists” might be overly polite.
Now, looking at Europe and the EU we have the same set of experts as in the US–in the Commission, in the Council and to some extent in the European Parliament.
And we have the issue of lobbyism. (Even though public attention is directed towards lobbyists in the Parliament, the real issue ought to be lobbyism directed towards the Commission and its staff.)
Then we have something that few people know about: The European Commission has some 250 different committees with around 7,000 “contributors”. And at least 1,000 (maybe up to 3,000) specialist groups with more than 40,000 “experts”. All of these with an agenda. And this is where EU policy is crafted out.
This is why it is almost impossible to get something done when it comes to e.g. data protection, mass surveillance or copyright reform in the Parliament. The power doesn’t lie with the elected politicians.
So, are we screwed? Is democracy just an illusion? In many cases, the answer seems to be yes. But Glennon gives us a glimmer of hope…
“The ultimate problem is the pervasive political ignorance on the part of the American people. And indifference to the threat that is emerging from these concealed institutions. That is where the energy for reform has to come from: the American people. Not from government. Government is very much the problem here. The people have to take the bull by the horns. And that’s a very difficult thing to do, because the ignorance is in many ways rational. There is very little profit to be had in learning about, and being active about, problems that you can’t affect, policies that you can’t change.”
From an European perspective we know that public opinion did put an end to the ACTA agreement (restricting the openness and freedom of the Internet). We also know that such occurrences are very rare. And that they depend on huge efforts from activists, civil society and the media. But–it can be done.
This is the first lesson in fighting the political apparatus: Know thy enemy.
/ HAX
So our hope is that the public suddenly wises up? In numbers large enough to vote in new people, completely unassociated with any of the current leaders?
We are so screwed.
In the European Union the problem doesn’t so much lie with the European Commission. The European Commission ultimately does not decide on the details of a given legislative proposal. While it is true that there are thousands of committees and working groups, etc., working on matters for the European Commission these are largely mere advisory bodies.
The problem also does not lie with the European Parliament, which historically has had a good track record in acting in accordance with the proverbial ‘will of the people’.
That leaves the Council of the EU. And, boy, are there problems with that. It is by far the most powerful and at the same time least transparent EU Institution. The entirety of its preparatory work is done by preparatory bodies composed of national experts, read: civil servants. These civil servants have never been elected and they do not change. It does not matter how many times the political leadership in the Member States changes the majority of the civil service remains unaffected. The civil service, thus, collectively runs the Council of the EU, as it is them that prepare and decide on practically everything. At the higher levels matters are decided on by ambassadors and only once a decision is taken will a minister come to Brussels and take a final (formal) vote on a dossier. Of course, in theory, that minister is the boss of the army of civil servants preparing the dossier on his behalf, but no government minister will micromanage individual technical matters. They take strategic decisions afterall. Thus, the entire legislative process happening in the Council of the EU is completely removed from democratic control.
If we wanted to fix the European Union, the Council of the EU is where we should start. The national executive branch has no place in the supranational legislative branch. The sooner we address this issue, the better for the European Union. Alas, that would require national governments to agree to change the European Union treaties and I highly doubt that they can be convince to give up their own cozy seat of power.