EU's black box

[luvdovz]

Who takes the most important decisions in EU? The answer should be: the states and the government leaders. But behind the scenes in Brussels, thousands of lobbyists are trying to influence politics - and often not in the healthiest of ways.

The EU does have a shady face too, a world of politics where decisions are formed outside the official

Comments

[brother_dour]

As us Americans can attest: do not let special interest lobbies have any political power. That way lies madness and a certain erosion of representative government.

[yes_justice]

+1

[sandwichwarrior]

The question is what constitutes a special intrest? How is a teacher's union lobbying the state for higher wages any different from a buisiness lobbying for a tax break?

It reminds me of a quote that i can't seem to find at the moment but the jist is...

When politicians are allowed to control what is bought or sold, politicians will be the first item bought or sold.

[peristaltor]

Good quote. Perhaps if we remove the cash connection from the lobby, we can just say that one person lobbying is the same as the next.

Once the purse strings are attached, the non-profitable lobbies cannot compete.

[sandwichwarrior]

Cutting the purse strings is a nice idea but i dont think its realistic.

Wealth is power, and power is wealth.

[peristaltor]

If we dismiss the mere idea before we even try to implement it, power/wealth will continue to metastatize. That can only bring collapse, at which point anyone's ability to affect change might be sidetracked by the need to feed one's self.

[sandwichwarrior]

The thing is that power/wealth need to be concentrated if certain function of the government are to be fufilled. Concentrations of wealth/power will inevitably attract those who are attracted by wealth/power. We as a society have decided that this metastatization, nice word choice by the way, is an acceptable price to pay.

[peristaltor]

Some bodily growths (moles, for example) do no harm to the body, and can be therefore ignored. Others draw nutrients from the body to such a degree that the body cannot survive.

I'm not questioning wealth/power concentrations of any degree; only the degree at which the concentration becomes metastatic. The current concentration should be a cause for concern; that it is increasing should be outright alarming.

[sandwichwarrior]

The current concentration should be a cause for concern; that it is increasing should be outright alarming.

On this we agree *tips hat*

[sophia_sadek]

The American system was established as a compromise between special interests.

[brother_dour]

I don't think it was intended to be that way. IMHO, if the Founding Fathers would have been able to see what special interests and lobbying have done to our political system back in 1789, there would have been an eleventh amendment added then to specifically ban that whole notion.

[sophia_sadek]

Things were pretty bad back then. There were a number of founders who decried the quality of the people being elected for public office. The constitutional convention would never have been held if the confederation of states had not fallen down in its duties to govern.

[brother_dour]

This is true- and admittedly it is always kind of a tricky thing (read: impossible) to figure out what people who died centuries ago were really thinking. Given my understanding of their guiding principles and beliefs about representative government, though, I think they would have been appalled by the extent of lobbying in our current system, if not by the idea.

[sophia_sadek]

I doubt that they would have been all that shocked. Some might even say, "I told you so." Let us not forget that Alexander Hamilton was tried (unsuccessfully) for corruption due to the profiteering of stock jobbers. The founders knew quite a bit about the pitfalls of excessive commercialism.