Go read the startup of Europe Bedfore you write a lot of these dumb things.
Coral Aurora
•
Jan 23, 2025
This is the way to fascism in Europe. Europe should be governed bottom-up, instead of top-down. Switzerland, one of the best democracies in the world, does not even have a President. They have an organ of 7 people who harmonizes legislation for the cantons.
Tan Rocket
•
Dec 16, 2024
After decades of trying the same thing and expecting different results, we will one day discover that the EU is a reflection of its members and that problems in the member state level (energy policy, welfare ponzi, crowding out) are not solvable with ‘more Europe’
Azure Leaf
•
Dec 15, 2024
YES!
Historically, no federation has ever survived long-term that has regionally elected representatives with regional vetoes.
The reason is what I call Overton deadlock, the misalignment of regional Overton windows and the incentive of local politicians to speak shit about the federal level and thus make the Overton misalignment worse over time.
I’ve seen it happen in real-time in Belgium, which has been drifting apart during my lifetime and most likely will not survive the next 30 years and it will happen to the EU too if they don’t reform this.
Indigo Mustard
•
Dec 15, 2024
Add a standing army to its role, and executive power. The state governments got to let go of their power and give it back to the people directly.
Cyan River
•
Dec 15, 2024
European Union doesn’t need (temporary elected) kings.
European Union should be reduced as much as possible and stop ALL legislation.
Tomato Melon
•
Dec 15, 2024
This is extremely important. Right now the EU is a representative representative (two levels) democracy. That’s a problem because:
With each level of representation, signal is lost. Even a single level of representation is flawed; it’s very rare that a candidate or party precisely represents your views, so you vote on the one that’s the closest match. That’s a compromise and (I would argue) a reasonable one. But if you extend this to two levels of representation, the loss of signal compounds. It’s a compromise on a compromise, and at the end the elected representative(s) may not align much with your preferences anymore at all.
A sense of disconnect between the leadership of the union and its citizens. Agree or disagree with Ursula von der Leyen, no citizen directly voted for her. That’s an issue, because for those who disagree with her there’s a sense that views and policies are being imposed on them by someone that wasn’t even directly elected. Given the amount of influence the EU has on the lives of its citizens today, this naturally creates resentment among those who do not agree with the course of the EU.
A broken feedback loop. When representatives aren’t directly elected, it breaks the feedback loop that’s supposed to exist in a democracy between the citizens and their leadership. Citizens should be able to vote out leadership that they feel isn’t acting on their behalf, but that mechanism currently doesn’t work well in the EU, again creating (unnecessary) resentment towards its leadership.
Many of the problems with the EU are fundamentally downstream from the fact that the EU Commission president isn’t directly elected.
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Comments7
Jade Lander
Dec 23, 2025
Go read the startup of Europe Bedfore you write a lot of these dumb things.
Coral Aurora
Jan 23, 2025
This is the way to fascism in Europe. Europe should be governed bottom-up, instead of top-down. Switzerland, one of the best democracies in the world, does not even have a President. They have an organ of 7 people who harmonizes legislation for the cantons.
Tan Rocket
Dec 16, 2024
After decades of trying the same thing and expecting different results, we will one day discover that the EU is a reflection of its members and that problems in the member state level (energy policy, welfare ponzi, crowding out) are not solvable with ‘more Europe’
Azure Leaf
Dec 15, 2024
YES!
Historically, no federation has ever survived long-term that has regionally elected representatives with regional vetoes.
The reason is what I call Overton deadlock, the misalignment of regional Overton windows and the incentive of local politicians to speak shit about the federal level and thus make the Overton misalignment worse over time.
I wrote a huge piece to explain this dynamic.
https://noverloop.substack.com/p/overton-deadlock
I’ve seen it happen in real-time in Belgium, which has been drifting apart during my lifetime and most likely will not survive the next 30 years and it will happen to the EU too if they don’t reform this.
Indigo Mustard
Dec 15, 2024
Add a standing army to its role, and executive power. The state governments got to let go of their power and give it back to the people directly.
Cyan River
Dec 15, 2024
European Union doesn’t need (temporary elected) kings.
European Union should be reduced as much as possible and stop ALL legislation.
Tomato Melon
Dec 15, 2024
This is extremely important. Right now the EU is a representative representative (two levels) democracy. That’s a problem because:
With each level of representation, signal is lost. Even a single level of representation is flawed; it’s very rare that a candidate or party precisely represents your views, so you vote on the one that’s the closest match. That’s a compromise and (I would argue) a reasonable one. But if you extend this to two levels of representation, the loss of signal compounds. It’s a compromise on a compromise, and at the end the elected representative(s) may not align much with your preferences anymore at all.
A sense of disconnect between the leadership of the union and its citizens. Agree or disagree with Ursula von der Leyen, no citizen directly voted for her. That’s an issue, because for those who disagree with her there’s a sense that views and policies are being imposed on them by someone that wasn’t even directly elected. Given the amount of influence the EU has on the lives of its citizens today, this naturally creates resentment among those who do not agree with the course of the EU.
A broken feedback loop. When representatives aren’t directly elected, it breaks the feedback loop that’s supposed to exist in a democracy between the citizens and their leadership. Citizens should be able to vote out leadership that they feel isn’t acting on their behalf, but that mechanism currently doesn’t work well in the EU, again creating (unnecessary) resentment towards its leadership.
Many of the problems with the EU are fundamentally downstream from the fact that the EU Commission president isn’t directly elected.