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At Large
Downfall: Europe’s Failed Political Class
Its inbreeding puts the Daleys, Bushes, and Cuomos to shame.
The casualty list from Europe’s apparently-endless financial crisis continues to grow. If you’re young, a taxpayer, or a German in today’s EU, you have good reason to believe you’ve been dealt a very bad hand.
There is, however, one impending casualty whose demise is fully merited. And that’s the credibility of Europe’s political class.
Having assured Europeans for the past 50 years that they know what they are doing, Europe’s politicians are now helplessly presiding over the continent’s worst economic maelstrom since the Depression: a calamity to which their policies have considerably contributed.
And it is a class of European politicians to which I’m referring — a group that’s even developed distinctly familial characteristics.
One European politician who’s been in the spot-light since 2009, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, is the son and grandson of former Greek prime ministers Andreas Papandreou and George Papandreou Sr. The word “dynasty” comes to mind.
Likewise, a front-runner for the Socialist party’s nomination for French President in the 2012 elections, Martine Aubry, is the daughter of Jacques Delors. Aside from being the eighth European Commission president, Delors served as economics minister under France’s late President, François Mitterrand.
Speaking of the Mitterrands, François’s nephew, Frédéric Mitterrand, is presently President Nicolas Sarkozy’s culture minister. The latter’s son, Jean Sarkozy, was elected as a city councilor at the tender age of 22. France’s hard-right National Front illustrated just how much it had become a regular part of France’s political landscape when its leadership passed from Jean-Marie Le Pen to his daughter Marine Le Pen (whose first two husbands, incidentally, were party officials) in January this year.
Ireland is a case-study in its own right. Literally dozens of family members — sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandsons, granddaughters, nephews, nieces, cousins, wives, husbands, in-laws — have followed each other into the legislature (sometimes into the same legislative seat) since Irish independence in 1922.
In short, family ties permeate Europe’s political landscape in ways that dwarf the Daleys of Chicago, the Bushes of Texas, and the Cuomos of New York.
Further compounding matters in Europe, however, is a professionalization of politics that makes the Cuomos look positively amateurish. Most European political parties with legislative representation have relatively small memberships. Nevertheless, they constitute the basis of a full-time career for many party members.
A good example is Finland’s president Tarja Halonen. Her political career began at university when she served as Secretary of the National Union of Students between 1969 and 1970. The following year, Halonen joined the Social Democratic Party (which today has just 50,000 members) and worked as a lawyer for the Social Democrat-affiliated trade union movement. In 1974, she became the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary. Two years later, Halonen was elected to the Helsinki city council. In 1979, she was elected to parliament, and served there for 21 years. Halonen went on to hold several ministerial posts until elected President in 2000.
In short, since her time in university, Halonen has done nothing career-wise except politically-related activity or holding government office. Her story, however, is quite typical.
Take today’s President of the European Council, Belgium’s Herman Van Rompuy. His political career began when he served as chairman of his Christian Democrat party’s youth wing at the age of 26. Apart from a three year stint in the early 1970s working at Belgium’s central bank and a short time in the 1980s as an academic, Rompuy has continuously held political offices before assuming his current position.
There are exceptions to this pattern (e.g., Germany’s Angela Merkel). But you have to search long and hard to find them. That alone makes a mockery of the usual European happy-talk about “openness” and “diversity.”
Which brings me to my last point: the diversity — or rather the lack thereof — when it comes to ideas among Europe’s political classes.
About the Author
Samuel Gregg is Research Director at the Acton Institute. He has authored several books including On Ordered Liberty, his prize-winning The Commercial Society, Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy, and, most recently, Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and America’s Future.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (33) | Leave a comment
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alice moore| 7.19.11 @ 7:09AM
Mr. Gregg, what you write about in Europe is a symptom. The problem lies with the electorate. It seems that the respective electorates of Greece, France, and Belgium have to be looked at for the root cause. BTW in Greece if its citizenry becomes tired of the Papandreous they just turn to the Karaminlis family then vice versa.
PolishKnight| 7.19.11 @ 9:50AM
I have something to scare you, Alice: The electorate makes little difference. At least to a point.
Provided they don't get the pitchforks and make a march on the capital, the elites can do what they do best: Grab and consolidate power. Since power helps them to get more power and they can use both disasters and prosperity to increase their pocketbooks and political-facebook friends lists, then they can manage the electorate relatively easily. Look at us! Are we stopping them?
So we vote in a few tea partying politicians some of whom are sincere and they quickly hit road blocks. The red tape and cronying in Washington is massive and those who go along, get along. Those who don't, wind up serving a single term (sometimes voluntarily as a term limit pledge) and leave.
Those electorates who aren't direct or indirect recipients of the welfare state and entitlements become cheerleaders for those in power because it feels good to at least emotionally be on the same side. It's like someone cheering for Ghengas Khan as he rides in the city gates. He's probably going to kill everyone, but they can at least not cheer for losers.
masly | 7.20.11 @ 2:39AM
When political class ancestors in the aristocracy went to war - and either on or lost - they always came home to their chalets and castles.
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Occam's Tool| 7.19.11 @ 1:30PM
I became interested in this phenomenon when I lived in New Zealand. I joined the National Party as a permanent resident, and was being recruited to run on the slate as an MP before I had received my citizenship. I would have gotten citizenship easily, but my wife (and then, I) wanted to come home so badly that I gave up my desire to run for Parliament.
There were about 10,000 members of the NP, which was quite inexpensive to join, in a country of 4 million. It is now the governing party in NZ.
RCV| 7.19.11 @ 10:15PM
Any country would be lucky to have you, OT.
Alan Brooks| 7.19.11 @ 9:40PM
The Bushes were (past tense) the most anti-conservative family in history.
JP| 7.19.11 @ 7:28AM
When I lived in Germany I was surprised at how little difference existed between Left and Right. The SPD and CDU are essientially the same and only vary in degree. The last truly independent German politician was the late Bavarian Govenor Franz Josef Strauss. He died in 1988. In those days, Bavaria was to Germany was Texas is to the US.
But today's political class in Europe is what Obama intends to implement here. But, in Europe the political class is overseeing an aging, lazy, and apathetic polity. The only real energy I see in Europe comes from its growing Muslim minorities. The future of Europe lies with them.
Wayne | 7.19.11 @ 7:48PM
I think Obama is skipping the European model is going right to the soviet model.
Deborah D | 7.19.11 @ 7:32AM
This article shows why it is so important to have citizen legislators. This article also shows why politicians fight against those damn citizens (Tea Partiers) and folks like Palin, Cain etc. They, the media, and many of us out here believe we need experienced "politicians." We don't. We need people with common sense who can make their own way in the world, go into politics to get something done, and then return to the world.
Redstateboy| 7.19.11 @ 8:23AM
Liber-ulism IS a Mental Disorder. How else can you explain Liber-uls insistence on following a model that proves - throughout time - to be a dysfunctional way for men to govern themselves.
And Here we have Das Messiah - a blithering idiot boob - who is so full of the Faith of Liber-ul socialist ideology - that he cannot see the Forest for the Trees.
John Navratil| 7.19.11 @ 9:19AM
Redstateboy,
Selfishness is the explanation. As Babara Michulski said while campaigning twenty years ago:
"The poor have nothing to give. The middle class has nothing left to give. So let's go get it from those who've got it."
PolishKnight| 7.19.11 @ 9:55AM
What a delightful lie. The middle class can give up their vacations to pay taxes, sacrifice their retirement funds for overpriced marxist college educations for their daughters, and sign up for 30 year low interest mortgages for 2 bedroom shacks their grandparents rented for 5 bucks a week.
In addition, Michulski regards the middle class as traitors (although she won't say so). During the cold war, they fought against the beloved communists in Korea and Vietnam and now are the primary electorate voting against the left except when the independents foolishly buy into whatever cool aid they're selling that week. So Michulski runs ads and slogans about being "For the middle class" while bringing in as many illegals as possible to reward with amnesty and future government jobs.
She's no better than George Soros.
Walking Horse| 7.19.11 @ 11:08AM
Michulski may be worse than Soros. At least Soros doesn't expect anybody to vote for his sorry ***.
The middle class is the enemy of these people. The rich are already bought off, in no small part facilitated by some of these old relationships among the "elites". The poor are purchased with bread and circus. Small business folk and other middle class people who are not already bound and gagged are the last group of folk who have the incentive to resist tyranny.
John Navratil| 7.19.11 @ 2:00PM
Polish Knight,
Rereading my post, I see it could be taken as support for Michulski's redistributionist crap. I'll restate that liberalism is selfish rather than delusional. These people know what they are doing. In their arrogance they "know" they know better than you or I.
PolishKnight| 7.19.11 @ 3:27PM
I'm rather proud that I've angered leftists with The Truth sufficiently to get them to walk out of the room in disgust. It's the ultimate compliment.
One of The Truth's that angers them is the observation that they're not going to covert the USA, and Europe for that matter, into Detroit and then magically have it become Sweden with warm water beaches.
Most of the remaining leftists who have no skin in the game: non-elites or bread-and-circus types are truly delusional in that they are just cheering on Caesar. Leftism is government worship because government is an awe inspiring thing. It can make, or break, any puny individual. God is this thing you choose to have faith in but do you dare not pay your taxes?
astorian| 7.19.11 @ 10:28AM
As Mark Steyn put it well, in most European countries, voters have only two choices: a slightly left of center party and a slightly right of the slightly left of center party.
As a result, the"conservative" parties of Europe invariably campaign on a platform of "We can administer socialist programs more efficiently than the Socialists."
Chrisiv| 7.19.11 @ 1:29PM
Very true. Like sheep, they are all followers of the failed socialist ideology. You cannot rely on the news media for anything different, no original thought. It's like Mob-mentality. Only will the people change when they are educated, when they realize that nothing is free and they all have to compete for a good life. The mob-mentality tells them to riot when they don't get what they want, when they don't see a conflict between their actions and desires, when they always fine a scapegoat and never look inward. These are clear signs of a secular society.
Walking Horse| 7.19.11 @ 11:02AM
The only good news about these self-appointed elites is that they are making government policy. If they were making babies, their issue would suffer from hemophilia or other genetic defects. Oh, wait, European royalty already tried doing both ...
Chrisiv| 7.19.11 @ 11:27AM
Good article. But the author did not point to the root of the problem. In a democracy, the people select their leaders. The people's mind are shaped by what they read and then by the community in which they live. Well, that cumminity's view is shaped by the left-wing news media. The media tend to attract these left-wing people who have a disconnect between theory that sounds good and reality (practical matter), e.g like meeting a business payroll, or running an enterprise that have to meander their way thru costly regaulations. This lack of understanding of basic economics, is almost a definition of the socialist mind - abstract theory that sounds good but very little relevance to reality. In the US, we say this is being smart by half. I am hopeful that with the Internet, more voices on practicality will be heard, rather than the limited minds of the main street media.
Sarbojit| 7.19.11 @ 12:05PM
Conservative commentators are on average more literate, erudite and well-read than liberal nouveau-proles. So, it would do some good to the general understanding of what ails Europe today, to shine a light on the monarchies and their continued philosophical influence in the age of democracy on the new social democrats.
The long-term northern - Scandinavian and Teutonic - genetic roots of most European royalty is well researched. Would that I that someone with more facility with language might trace these roots into the present.
The roots of American leftism might then be understood as less of European origin, with its egalitarian history, than of Russian, with its domination history.
Europe, after all, is the civilisation of the Rennaissance, a people which retrieved its own history from the Arabs, who for a time appeared to have usurped the Greek, the Roman, the Persian and the Sanskrit for itself. Such an Europe may still find its way back, as we all hope Americans will step back from the abyss of Obama.
Chrisiv| 7.19.11 @ 1:10PM
Lots of seemingly drunken gibberish here, SoberJit. This is not a historical- cultural phenomena, This (political ideology) is from current education and from where people get their info.
PolishKnight| 7.19.11 @ 3:33PM
I know it's an awful film and hardly on the same level as Greek or Renaissance literature, but have you ever seen the old Sean Connery B sci-film film "Zardoz?"
A spoiled, decadent civilization begs barbarians to come in and kill them and put them out of their misery. Residents scream "Give me the gift of death! Please!" and happily present their bosoms.
American leftists are like that. They really want to see the evil American economy destroyed and don't really care much about what happens after that. At least the cool aid drinking comet cultists may have hoped they were getting a ride afterwards.
John Navratil| 7.19.11 @ 10:02PM
PolishKnight,
This comment is really off-topic, but I can't resist as I once (has it been thirty years) sat down to watch "Zardoz". I am one of those who watch films until the end. I sat through "Macon County Line", "Last Tango in Paris", "Reds" and "Titanic". I walked on "Zardoz".
Should I rent it?
Don| 7.19.11 @ 1:20PM
I've come to see progressivism/socialism as a new feudalism. People call it the Ruling Class vs the Country Class. We have our monarchs - (Obama, Bushes, Clintons, etc.) who live lavishly and retire multi-millionaires many times over today - compared to Truman and other ex-Presidents who retired fairly modestly. We have our 'Nobles' - Reid, McCain, Pelosi, etc. - who live by their own rules and who are really indifferent to what is really going on in the real world. We have our religious order - Rev. Wright, Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, etc. - whose job is not to save souls but support the Ruling Class. Then we have the Barons - who fund the lives of the Ruling Class - Goldman Sachs, BOA, etc. And we have our court jesters, Bill Mahrer, John Stewart, Steven Colbert - who while occasionally tweak the Rulers really save their venom for the Country Class rubes who are 'too stupid' to know what's good for them. And then there is the rest of us. Half of us (the peasants) are bought and paid for by the scraps tossed to us from the banquet tables of the Ruling Class (ie Government programs that enslave rather than liberate) bought and paid for by a shrinking class of the Craftsmen, Builders, etc. who pay most of the bills. Maybe it's just the natural order of things - Feudalism to Collapse to Republic to Democracy and back to Feudalism - wash, rinse repeat.
JimH| 7.19.11 @ 1:23PM
Of course this is why China used to use eunuchs for significant government positions. Possibly a practice which should be brought back.
cicero| 7.19.11 @ 4:46PM
The cruel thing about democeracy is that we have to actually get up and vote for the people we are now complaining about. The trouble is that we have worked ourselves into a position where those who should be running for leadership positions cannot afford the time or money to do so.
In Michigan, until last November, we have been electing governors who have never held a job in the real world. You can go all the way back to the 60s, with George Romney to find a governor who actually held a job in the private sector. The rest came out of college, ran for elective office, and worked their way up from office to office, or, like Granholm, came out of law school, and went into government work before entering elective positions.
And we wonder why we are plundered by our governing class to fund their positions and life styles.
In the 1st century B.C., Julius Ceasar, when he wnted to rule Rome, plundered Gaul, and used the proceeds to bribe the Roman electorate. Our political class can't get to Gaul, so they plunder us and bribe the non-taxpaying sector of society in return forr their votes.
Chrisiv| 7.19.11 @ 7:36PM
Look, you guys have to read Ann Coulter's book about mob-mentality. I used to rack my brain about what could cause well-spoken, educated Christians to not be able to connect the dots on over-spending, secularism, messing with the constitution, dragging down traditional institutions, lack of patriotism etc and the effects that these thing will have on US society. Michael Savage calls Liberalism a mental dis-order. Others say these people are crazy or are un-american or had something happen to them in their childhood. The best explanation is a combination of mostly mob mentality, aided by the main stream media and lack of education and critical thinking. It's not necessarily a right-brain or left brain issue, nor is it evil vs. good, or secular vs. spiritual. Although, each of these contribute to the mob-mentality.
John K| 7.21.11 @ 12:14PM
That will be why our last Socialist Home Secretary banned Michael Savage from entering Britain. We British serfs should not have to put up with a nasty American, much less one actually called "Savage", putting ideas into our heads, that would never do.
DaveS| 7.19.11 @ 8:23PM
When political class ancestors in the aristocracy went to war - and either on or lost - they always came home to their chalets and castles. Thus, the lack of rational and long-term positive results in the net affairs of Europe. We have Greece, Portugal, a decrepit culture represented well by Amsterdam, unemployed youth of socialist parents. What a mess.
POST American| 7.19.11 @ 11:31PM
"----We are using MASSIVE third world
immigration to DESTROY British culture
once and for all ---FOREVER."
-TONY BLAIR
Fmr PM/ Globalist/ Cultural and Demographic EUGENIST/
---future President of the EU?
(Daily Mail interview)
This RIIA-CFR/UN 'continuity of agenda' rules
across the west. Take a look at our borders,
at Mexico, at our culture.
Need we say more?
Mistral| 7.20.11 @ 4:41PM
We need a Ron Paul in the EU to help us remove thousands of political sinecures and quangos; tens of thousands of elected and appointed local, national and supra-national "mis"representatives who waste tax-payers money daily on wasteful ideas and actions - stretch-limousines; gay-parades (and we do not have even one heterosexual parade as they would be deemed homophobic); town-twinships by the myriads; endless committees that do and achieve relatively little; corruption in the most glaring forms; expense accounts and financial privileges; carbon monoxide credit payments amongst other grossly uneconomic so-called "green" policies and many under-the-table masonic deals with strange hand-shakes and so forth. Amidst this we find politicians who failed after years of milking their national politial systems then retire to become European Members of Parliament or irresponsible faceless bureaucrats who only appear locally, if at all, at election time.
God save us from this socialist lunacy!
weddingdresses | 7.21.11 @ 6:02AM
This RIIA-CFR/UN 'continuity of agenda' rules
across the west. Take a look at our borders,
Claire Solt PhD| 9.29.11 @ 11:30AM
Today, 2 Democrat leaders are arguing for less democracy.It is supreme irony that the so called leaders who fostered and led this unending economic crisis now argue for a monopoly on governing. By contrast, I am seeing that internet gamers decoded a protein that had stumped scientists for years and it took them 2 weeks. Nasa admits that geeks going through their data found two big planets that the experts missed. Sure sems that not only are two heads better than one, but millions might be light years ahead of the two in problem solving.