In defence of technocrats

adrian drummond

What twaddle...

Mycroft

Good effort to defend the indefensible; something has plainly gone very wrong with Italian democracy. Thank God that a similar arrangement is simply unthinkable in this country!

reynard

We realise you are a wind up merchant and are probably good business as far as traffic to the blogs is concerned.

But the answer to your opening gambit is no.

fergus pickering

Good Heavens, I don't care what Italians do. They can elect Mussolini, who might be a better bet than this 'technocrat'. Would you define technocrat? What particular skill does he have except picking up a large salary for doing bugger all. All EU technocrats know how to do that, certainly.

TomTom

Democracy is a bit of a sham really Daniel. Mussolini ran Italy for years and de Gaulle was almost a Fascist himself. Europe has a long tradition of non-democratic government; think of Franco and Salazar. It may be that the wheel is turning and we are returning to the old ways in Europe

London Calling

Papandreou’s calls for a Referendum = Goodbye Papandreou’s, and is replaced by unelected Eurostar = Goodbye Democracy…

Berlusconi calls the Euro a failure since Italy Joined = Goodbye Berlusconi. and is replaced with unelected Eurostar (without not one elected politician present) = Goodbye Democracy…

All in the name of preserving the Euro = European Dictatorship…

London Calling

Testing 123...

Its way past the point of being accused of being sceptical…the facts speak for themselves…whatever the UK does, it must do so quietly, rewards for solutions only exposes your possible options allowing the opposition to counteract…

In the words of Lord Judge to the EU/ECHR two days ago…Don’t push your luck…
Lord Chief Justice 'fears EU may stop our judges defying Strasbourg'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062029/Lord-Chief-Justice-tells-ECHR-dont-push-luck-new-rights-showdown.html#ixzz1dz7jRYmD

Phil

"If more than 80 per cent of the legislature do not want elections and chose to install a technocratic government, how is that undemocratic?"

What do you think the "demos" stands for?

David Lindsay

George Osborne is a member of the Bilderberg Group. So there we have it. That, and that alone, is why this fabled body receives practically no coverage. If it will stoop to allowing him into it, then it cannot have anything of any real interest or importance to cover.

Frank P

The arrogance of you and your Europhile bureaucratic toadies (a.k.a. - new ephemism - 'technocunts') is breathtaking, even though we have grown to expect it from you.

"Eventually, elections will happen, but for now the majority seem [sic] to accept that the course followed as necessary and democratic. So should outsiders."

How could you possibly know without an election, you twat? The risible nonsense of that statement and final imperative is rich even for you. No doubt you're from the Cameron school of thinking on referendums.

Liz Brown

So, noone forced him to go but I didn't see much supportfrom other EU leaders help him to stay and how very convenient that Monti just happened to be waiting in the wings.......
You can't call an election if there is no Opposition and who in the Government (unelected technocrats the lot of them) will vote themselves out of a sinecure?
What will happen, however, is that when the Italians waken up to the extent of the takeover and the facts of the austerity measures, then we will see just how thrilled your new happy Italians really are

Jon Rosenberg

Just because the Italian legislature and political parties have acceded to demands of the European elites, does not make the situation democratic. After all if a man holds a gun to your head and make demands of you it's not generally considered that your subsequent statements are reflective of your own free willed volition.

salieri

Great post, if it had only been the first paragraph. Didn't we just know the second would start with 'but'?

Frank P

"Nobody forced Berlusconi to resign'. Bawaaahahahahahaha! Oh what a whimsical wanker you are Daniel!

Falco

Ah yes the old "Democracy is difficult, lets try one of the forms of despotism instead." argument.

Andy Carpark

'including officials, politicians, businesspeople, journalists and analysts'

Korski, If you have ever met anyone who is NOT an official, politician, businessperson, journalist or analyst, I will eat my hat.

The logic of your penultimate paragraph could also have been used to defend the indefinite prolongation of the Rump Parliament.

RocketDog

If more than 80 per cent of the legislature do not want elections and chose to install a technocratic government, how is that undemocratic?

Vox Populi? I don't think so

M42

D.K. - Barking.....Completely and utterly barking.....

Publius

By Korski's formula, Hitler too was democratic.

Andy Leeds

I sometimes feel a bit sorry for Korski. He does get a lot of stick here. But God's Death is the man a complete idiot ? Within the last two weeks we have witnessed two 'coups' in Europe. I did not think I would ever live to see this, and it makes my blood run cold. Berlusconi was, for all his faults, the democratically elected leader of the Italian Government. George Papandreou was the democratically elected leader of the Greek Government. No matter what you think of either of them we should set much more store by elections. We need to be wary of those who set aside such things merely because they do not serve their purposes. Europe has a bloody history of such things. The fact Korski seems to throw in his lot with these would be tyrants is a despicable.

James

"Under pressure by the markets, he chose to resign."

Pressure? What pressure?

Market prices on bond yields are a reflection of confidence and risk, that's all. They don't exert political pressure in the same way that Merkozy can.

Mary C

In Italy and Greece you have coalitions cobbled together with policies no-one voter for supposedly to fix a national economic .Just like the UK.

In2minds

"most Italians I've spoken with — including officials, politicians, businesspeople, journalists and analysts" -

The great and the good, just like DK! So bollocks to the ordinary voter?

Mudplugger

Ain't it just like buses......

You wait more than 60 years for a Gauleiter to come along, then a whole cabinetful arrives at once..

jheath

So the politicians may be useless and corrupt etc.etc., but their technocratic advisers and EU commissioners do not seem to have given good advice. The central bankers have fed the political overspending and overborrowing, and none have resigned in outrage. But then they become the new masters of the universe.

If Cameron ever gets stroppy with the EU will we get a technocrat? Or will Mandelson or Clegg suffice?

Dimoto

Who can blame the Italian politicians ?

They are having what will be a deeply unpopular programme of austerity, imposed on them by Merkozy, which will not solve the fundamental problem of loss of competitivity.

The politicians are basically saying: OK, you force us to do this, then YOU take the responsibility.

And when the population start getting restless, who will deal with them ?
What mandate will the police have Mr Korski ?

George Stewart

By this logic;

Quadafi was the democratic leader of Libya.

So is Assad in Syria.

Saddam Hussain in Iraq.

When direct democracy is short circuited, trouble will happen.

Cynic

Given that Berlusconi did resign (did he do it willingly or was he forced?), there should have been an election. That would have been democratic. There wasn't. Somebody unelected was parachuted in to take control. What's democratic about that? Even Gordon Brown was elected by the voters of Kirkaldy before the backroom deal.

anon

Nobody forced the Hungarian government out in 1956 they could've stayed, of course. Same with the Czech government in 1968. The people were happy when they saw the Soviet tanks coming to restore order. Really they were. The Politburo in Moscow said so and I've no reason to disbelieve them...

fergus pickering

TomTom, I resent, on behalf of the people of France, the description of the General as almost a fascist. He and Mrs T would have got on famously. On second thoughts, no they wouldn't.

Foundavoice

Ex-civil servant and current European Council on Foreign Relations Senior Policy Fellow Daniel Korski comes out in defence of EU technocrats.

Quelle surprise.

He conveniently ignores the meeting between Mer-Kozy, the IMF and ECB to provide a co-ordinated political and market based attack on Silvio.

But what's the point in arguing with the man? He's not honest enough to state his vested interest in the article.

michael

Technocrats = bankers... well who better to tax the poor to give to the banks.

D. Singh

Sir

Has Mr Korski failed to study Plato’s ‘The Republic’ and its thesis for rule ‘by the Guardians’?

Mr Korski would do well to study Sir Karl Popper’s ‘The Open Society and its Enemies’?

It is now only a matter of time before Jews and practising Christians, on the continent of Europe, reach for their passports.

Tarka the Rotter

In defence of democracy...does anyone know if we can use these e-petitions to hold the likes of Blair and Brown to account for the damage they've done to the constitution of this country and for engaging in war under false pretences? We are far too passive - time to unleash the demos, don't you think?

oldtimer

Pure spin. And no mention of the manipulation of, and intervention in the Italian bond market by the ECB, nor of the arcane activities of the Frankfurt group in and around the G20 meeting.

Thomas Paine

Quite. The kneejerk foaming at the mouth over these events gives the right a bad name. There's plenty of real stuff to criticise relating to EU behaviour without indulging in fantasy.

Richard Bates

A sensible piece - certainly compared with much that has appeared in the British press. Worth adding that the Italian constitution lays down that recourse to an election when a government falls is the last, and not the first, resort. The President is obliged to consult all the party leaders to see if there is a possible alternative majority. Normally this would be led by a politician, but that is by no means obligatory, and there are at least two recent exceptions (Ciampi and Dini in 1993 and 1995). In this case they obviously recommended Monti as someone with sufficient authority and broad-based approval. One of the reasons, of course, is that none of the parties wants to have to put its own name to the difficult economic decisions that they have been putting off for decades.
Of course, the anti-EU brigade, who are so vociferous in the British press, won't care tuppence for these considerations. But what has happened this week is absolutely in accordance with due democratic process in Italy.

Jonathan Woolf

I know the Spectator employs Korski for the same reasons the Telegraph employ Riddell, to wind us all up and get traffic. But sometimes I wonder if his articles aren't actually written as satire by Messrs Nelson and co.

The new regimes now in power in Greece and Italy were installed by France and Germany, under cover of the EU, and are led by dyed-in-the-wool Eurocrats. And not just any Eurocrats, but an ex-ECB deputy and ex-Commissioner. That these regimes are therefore a result of an EU coup is beyond doubt.

Just like the recent military regimes that deposed politicians in Pakistan and Thailand, to take a couple of recent examples, these EU juntas are getting an initial welcome, or so it seems (based on some pretty thin or anecdotal evidence). I suspect this won't last much beyond their first act of austerity. Then it will get interesting - will we see French and German troops on the streets of Athens and Rome, to help "maintain stability" and "ensure compliance with the bailout terms"? Because none of these EU juntas have their own tanks and soldiers.

John Bowman

"But nobody forced Silvio Berlusconi to resign. Nobody sacked him."

Nobody forced Socrates to drink hemlock. Nobody killed him.

Castor de Boberis

Democracy is not so much about what is often the myth of people power exercised through the opinion of a numerical majority but rather lies in the separation if the three powers.

Frank P

John Bowman

But Socrates never simulated sex with a traffic warden and got himself posted on You Tube either John:

However the peripatetic old pouftah would probably have romped in the showers at Penn State University though.

Frank P

John Bowman

I tried to post the link - but the software spat it out. Just go to You Tube, enter Berlusconi + Traffic Warden + simulated sex