2011-12-09

Social mood in Europe; predictable political result

Cameron faces showdown with Sarkozy France's Sarkozy warns Europe risks disintegration

Social mood is responsible for the crisis in Europe. The financial and sovereign debt crisis is real, but it is just a part of the larger political crisis, which is being driven by declining social mood. Nationalism is on the rise and the EU is a inflexible political institution that runs roughshod over the democratic process, from having an unelected EU Commission, staging multiple votes until countries "get it right," to changing the process when democracy acts as a roadblock (when a European constitution was rejected, the EU decided to use the Lisbon treaty, essentially achieving the same political ends, but treaties are approved by parliaments, not the people). It has no way to cope with rising nationalist sentiment because the EU is an anti-nationalist institution, it is designed to destroy individual nations and cultures. It is designed to concentrate power in a European elite, replacing the elite of each individual country. While the common market and other cooperative arrangements and institutions can survive, it's not clear that the EU political process can survive this decline in social mood.

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