BERLIN: The European Union can no longer afford to keep national vetoes when deciding on European Union foreign and security policy if it wants to maintain a leading role in global politics, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. Moscow's war in Ukraine makes unity in Europe ever more urgent and increases pre
Let me guess, you think China is democratic even tho it has a very pyramidal electoral system, hierarchical electoral system, where only local People’s Congresses are directly elected and everything after that (many layers) are elected pyramid-ally, through layers of representatives, with the added bonus it’s not only bottom->top votes there, but also top->bottom screening/vetoing.
In the EU people vote directly (in many countries by politician name/not lists) on their city level, county level, the province level, the state level, the country level, and also for the EU parliament, the EU level.
The thing that’s not quite as democratic and is bureaucratic is the European Commission (only one part of the EU “government”), the president of it is suggested by country leaders essentially, and is then voted/approved/reject by the EU Parliament, and then the Commission members themselves get suggested by the various respective countries’ ministers and then voted on by the EU Parliament. The rest of the EU “government” are the ministers of the various countries themselves (Council of the European Union). And honestly, as much a minister is indirectly appointed in literally any country, so is a member of the EU “government”, essentially.
Btw, the “head of state” of the EU is the European Council - the “heads of state/government” of the various countries.
The biggest problem is the Parliament can’t suggest legislature, only vote on it, but that’s in the process of being changed as we speak. Also, there’s also the Spitzenkandidat, whereby even the Commission president could be directly elected theoretically.
Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutions_of_the_European_Union
I feel like, due to your dislike of unrestrained capitalism in North America, and the US attempted hegemony and imperialism (I say attempted because they haven’t really succeeded), which is understandable on its own and totally fine, you’re blinded into a state where you dislike anything “western” without any objectivity.
The problem isn’t with having many layers. Any complex organization will have layers. The problem is with accountability. The government in China consistently acts in the interest of its constituents because it depends on social stability to stay in power. The EU bureaucracy does not have this relationship with the people living in the countries that are part of the EU and the results speak for themselves here.
I don’t follow.
In China, the stability of central government is directly dependent on social and economic stability in China. In EU that’s not the case as far as I can see.
I don’t like replying in memes, because it feels a bit rude, but this is just: https://pics.me.me/you-can-tell-that-its-an-aspen-tree-because-of-2666368.png
:P
If you can’t see the difference in the outcomes between the governance in EU and China, I really don’t know what else to tell you. I guess that’s what happens when your world view can be summed up using memes.
Memes aside, your reasoning seems cyclic indeed. If you wanted to prove your point, you should explain how this is achieved in China, and compare that to EU.
Not sure what you’re claiming to be cyclical in my argument. I’ve explained that there is a fundamental difference in structure and accountability of the Chinese government and EU bureaucracy.
To expand on that, the structure of CPC is inherently bottom up, while EU is top down. CPC is also composed of regular working class people, and has huge membership. Conversely, EU bureaucracy is composed of capitalists with practically no working class representation. Finally, Chinese elections are a selection process based on demonstrated competence with people showing ability at lower levels competing for positions at higher level. This is not the case with EU where no demonstrated competence is required.
I hope that clarifies things for you.
Not saying whether it is good or bad, but I think it can definitely not be called a democracy when to enter ther decision process you have to
< selection process based on demonstrated competence
All I see here is a potential for a benevolent dictatorship and a malevolent dictatorship. Benevolent dictatorships are cool. Until they turn malevolent. That’s the big problem.
In liberal democracies you have a choice. There’s been plenty of random movements and parties that exploded in size, like that five star movement in Italy, or the Greens in Germany, or whatever. Just like there’s been random politicians that came out of nowhere, no capitalist background, like the Finnish PM, Sanna Marin, or whatever.
I’m not touching the US’s essentially two party system (due to “first past the point” voting) with a ten foot pole here. Or the UK. Or the Anglosphere in general.
< regular working class people
The CCP has plenty of working class "foot soldiers”, just like western democracies’ parties do too in their ranks, I see no difference.