By Graham Vanbergen – Recognise this description of your Democracy? Wikipedia: (Greek: δημοκρατία, Dēmokratía
literally “rule of the commoners”), in modern usage, is a system of
government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect
representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a
parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as “rule of the
majority”. Democracy was originally conceived in Classical Greece, where
political representatives were chosen by a jury from amongst the
citizens: rich and poor.
No, I don’t recognise this in either Britain or the European Union.
Today, citizens are more often than not bypassed by their so-called
elected officials, usually on a manifesto that is more representative of
a raft of lies (nowadays often called pledges) than a set of hard
promises. However, in most democracies the ruling party can elected back
out of power sometime later.
The EU itself does not provide such luxuries. It supposedly operates a
democracy through a hybrid system of supranational and
intergovernmental decision-making. The seven principal decision-making
bodies – the institutions of the European Union—are the European
Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the
European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the
European Central Bank, and the European Court of Auditors.
The interesting word in this Wikipedia description of the EU is
‘Supranational,’ in other words “having power or influence that
transcends national boundaries or governments.” It is here that we see
that power and influence is so overwhelmingly abused that democracy has
been completely circumvented and along with it any understanding that
might represent the ‘rule of the majority’.
