The ‘debt crisis’ and the undermining of democracy in Europe

While CK’s on the road, she’s invited me to blog and cross-post here. So I’m recycling this tasty little item, which I found via @NaomiAKlein. (They say she’s polarizing … )

A sample:

Vast swathes of public policy have already been closed off and rendered inaccessible to conventional democratic processes. Anyone who’s seen so-called “free trade” arrangements in operation can recognize that already in the multiple ways governments are shackled and constrained from acting in the public interest. The threat of penalties for failing to prioritize the interests of investors outweighs the public good in too many ways to enumerate.

The enervating effect on civic life is obvious: as more and more sectors of political and economic policy are rendered off limits to public control, politics itself becomes enfeebled, symbolic, and ultimately meaningless.