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Monday, October 05, 2009
The Irish Fail to Save Civilization
OK. Now we're all agreed that this time we're not going to save their sorry statist-collectivist asses. Three times in a hundred years really is enough.
About two-thirds of voters are thought to have backed the treaty, removing the final obstacle to the creation of a European Union president and "foreign minister". Mr Cowen said the result would bring about "a stronger and fairer Ireland and Europe" but UK Independence Party (Ukip) leader Nigel Farage, who waded into the Irish debate, compared the vote with a corrupt election in Zimbabwe or Afghanistan.
In London, Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, said: "The treaty is good for the UK and good for Europe. We can now work together to focus on the issues that matter most to Europeans – a sustained economic recovery, security, tackling global poverty, and action on climate change."
Ireland's vote followed a bitter campaign that pitted all the mainstream political parties and big business against a tiny coalition of No campaigners. Voters in Ireland rejected the treaty in the first referendum 18 months ago. Government ministers, opposition politicians and CEOs from international companies lined up during the campaign to warn Irish voters that rejecting the treaty for a second time risked plunging Ireland deeper into recession.
Sigh. One of the hallmarks of European civilization was its dynamism. This could be bloody, and often was, yet the competition between the continent's nation states prevented Europe from degenerating into Chinese style stagnation. The Inquisition putting the kibosh on scientific inquiry in Spain, Portugal and Italy was a wicked thing, and crippled these once great powers for centuries, but Europe carried on. Much of the brainpower that created modern finance was Portuguese-Jewish.
Thing was that most of them fled the counting houses of Lisbon for the more hospitable climes of Amsterdam. Portugal's loss, the Netherlands's gain, and the progress of Europe kept on rollin' along. The short-sightedness of some European governments made it to the advantage of other rulers on the continent to think twice. It was the brilliant success of the Industrial Revolution in Britain that prompted countries like France, Germany, Italy and Austria to gradually liberalize their societies. They had to keep up with the Jones, particularly when the Jones had steam powered ships and high powered finance changing the course of human development. Either you got with the program or became the next Portugal: A great has-been.
The Americans, using the historical accident of thirteen semi-independent colonies, developed modern federalism, an idea in turn adopted by the founding fathers of Canada and the Australia. The problem with having two levels of government is that the subsidiary bits often want to break away. That was Sir John A Macdonald's worry about Canadian Confederation, that if the federal government wasn't overwhelmingly strong the country would collapse into civil war.
Thankfully Sir John didn't win that argument. His critics - particularly George Brown, Oliver Mowat and Honore Mercier - made sure that Canada evolved into a genuine federal state. John A wanted the provinces to be glorified municipalities, with Ottawa calling the shots. Sir John A's ideal for Canada is where the Lisbon Treaty is taking Europe. The embryonic European super state is a long way off from having the same powers Sir John A wielded, and no one is claiming the nation state is dead yet, but the path is being made by Lisbon. For all the talk of creating a federal Europe, that's exactly what the Lisbon won't do. In a genuine federal system powers are delineated between each of the levels of government. Rather than allowing Europe's historic dynamism to flourish under a unified federal system, a Brussels run Europe is likely to impose the vices of its most statist members on the whole continent. One gigantic welfare state heading toward bankruptcy. Eighteen months ago it looked like the Irish had saved European Civilization. Now they merely delayed the inevitable.
Posted by Richard Anderson on October 5, 2009 | Permalink
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