Why the EU is failing -- take two

In an earlier post I noted that the Euro-elites were offering two basic explanations for the rising tide of resistance to the proposed EU constitution.

1) Lefties saw the constitution as a vote against globalization and economic liberalism.

2) others attributed it to a fear of Muslim immigration and an attempt to preserve national cultures.

Gareth Harding, a strong supporter of EU integration, offers a third explanation. He writes:

The EU is a rule-based body or it is nothing and its legitimacy is based on mutual trust among member states. This is why the decision by France and Germany to rip up the growth and stability pact -- the eurozone's fiscal rulebook -- has had such a devastating impact on smaller countries.

In other words it was the refusal of Germany and France to agree to be bound by mutually agreed economic and fiscal policies that undermined the whole thing.

Read it here.

OK, but I'm sticking with my original assessment. All of these things and more undermined the constitution, but even more important was the fact that the EU Constitution would establish throughout the continent a profoundly undemocratic political order. I, following Lexington Green, argue that in an age of democratic revolution the profoundly un-democratic nature of the Constitution made it a hard selling point. In essence it asked people to trust their destinies to an unelected Euro-elite. But that argument depends on the willingness of people to trust the elites, and that is asking a lot.