EU Democrises

I have a toss-up between De Grauwe's work and a Mazower (of the History-of-an-Idea fame) article that appeared in the FT where he contrasts the EZ's political state and comes down upon the austerity preachers fairly hard. He states that:

"Greece, in particular, showed that even if capital flows might be going in the right direction, the democratic deficit was widening. No one has much cared outside Greece that a neo-Nazi party could shoot to above 10 per cent in the polls. But it is a warning of what can happen to other eurozone members."

Furthermore,

"Technocrat prime minsters, such as Italy’s Mario Monti or Greece’s Lucas Papademos, are no alternative: they may have clean hands because they remained outside party politics. But they are creatures of banking and economics. While they may understand money, that no longer recommends them to the voters who would rather have someone who understands them.

The result is dangerous. It is but a short step from writing off the political class to writing off the institutions of democracy. So far most voters have not done this in either Italy or Greece. But some have and the temptation is there for more to do so, whether by drifting towards the far right, towards an anti-capitalism that is the prisoner of its own revolutionary rhetoric, or towards a kind of anarchic alternative to party politics – the direct democracy espoused by Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement in Italy."

It's painfully obvious to see how oblivious the power-holders/austerity-drivers in Europe are to the political quagmire that pervades all across the land. The consequences of the austerity drive have led to discontent and social scarring, that over time will prove more and more difficult to resolve. 

Just yesterday, somebody tweeted a picture of tens of thousands lined up on the streets of Lisbon. Were they celebrating a European cup for Sporting Lisbon? Nope. Protesting against austerity. There's a downward spiral of exacerbation that rears its ugly head during the election cycle. Nothing supercedes enfranchisement and when the time comes, again and again, governments will be wiped out until one caters to the masses. 

And that is precisely why and economic crisis, though inextricably linked, is no match for a democratic crisis. 

Mazower ends thus:

"Those preaching austerity probably do not see themselves as contributing to a crisis of democracy, but they are. The Italian elections should remind Eurozone leaders to pay attention to their voters. Economic fixes have failed to staunch a political crisis that has the capacity to harm not only EU integration, but the legitimacy of the continent’s democratic order itself."

It's another one of the million warnings that no one seems to want to heed.