Home
|
Trend Lines
|
EU Opposition: Anti-Globalization or Pro-Liberty?
Hampton Stephens
|
Bio
|
02 Jun 2008
The LA Times article Judah cites in his previous post frames opposition to the Lisbon Treaty in
Ireland and elsewhere as largely a matter of a backlash against globalization.
I obviously haven't done any polling, but at first glance this smells to me like the spin of EU constitution proponents, and seems to seriously underestimate the role some of the
constitution's more undemocratic provisions play in opposition to the
document. And the process by which Europe's political elites have tried to
get around the inconvenient fact that voters often tend to reject giving away their political prerogatives to the Brussels bureaucracy only reinforces
the often justified perception that the whole project will reduce the
political liberty of Europe's citizens while enhancing the power of
unelected technocrats.
And I'm not even sure I see the logic
whereby a vote for the constitution necessarily equals a vote for the
economic benefits of globalization. Globalization, after all, has much
to do with economic liberty, and economic liberty cannot in the end be
completely separated from political liberty. Does anyone seriously
imagine, for example, that if Ireland votes "yes" that it's 12 percent
corporate tax rate won't sooner or later come under assault by Brussels?
I'm about as pro-globalization as they come, and if I were an Irish citizen I would have serious reservations about voting "yes." Is it unreasonable to suspect there are many in Ireland like me?