Comments on: The European model

By: ArtD0dger

ArtD0dger — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:44:20 +0000

They don't seem to be associated with the American Prospect, in fact they post-date them by 5 years (1990 vs. 1995, both surprisingly young). I bookmarked the mandarin article just because I thought it was so bad, but to be fair to the Prospect, there are a couple of articles up there now that are good or at least thought-provoking (the Noam Chomsky cover notwithstanding).

By: Helen

Helen — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 18:57:55 +0000

Lex, you are very lucky never to have seen that utterly ghastly publication. Prospect Magazine is the sort of thing that makes me feel that the end of civilization has come already and we may as well give up. Then I go on the internet and change my mind.

By: Lex

Lex — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 18:20:20 +0000

I'd never even heard of Prospect Magazine. It looks loathesome.

By: Helen

Helen — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 15:21:06 +0000

Prospect is the best place for the mandarins to fight back. It is not only from the mobocracy they want to protect us (something to be said for that, if I believed it) but from us exercising our own freedom and choice. The liberals of the nineteenth century did fear democracy because they realized the dangers of demagoguery, and promises to interested groups at others’s expense. I am not completely sure I would disagree with that. But few of them saw the answer in a mandarin class that would “protect” the people. But Prospect magazine and its contributors (and readers who chose Noam Chomsky as the greatest public intellectual) see themselves as part of that very class – civil servants, some politicians and the higher journalism.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 20:00:48 +0000

There was indeed, scandalously, such a book. It is a symptom of the broader scandal of CIA partisanship and subversion of the elected government's agenda. There have been similar problems at the State Dept., which is why Bush appointed as heads of these agencies people who would first and foremost do his bidding. Lex is right that the sort of corruption you discuss is limited in the States. Not only does the EU hold no sway, but there is a strong popular ethos opposed to anything that smacks of rule by elites. However, this ethos isn't what it used to be. Electioneering by public servants seems to be more frequent and accepted than was formerly the case (here's a minor example).

By: ArtD0dger

ArtD0dger — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:38:19 +0000

Helen, you obviously fail to understand. Legions of unelected administrators are required to shield us from our foolishly-elected officials and keep us from descending into a mobocracy. It�s a feature, not a bug. I know this because I read it in this, er, enlightening article which attempts to recycle the noble appellation �mandarin� (who knew?).

By: Helen

Helen — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:10:00 +0000

Lex,

Was there not a book published by a CIA agent during the last election, effectively undermining the Administration’s policy over Iraq? I can understand you caution about the Plame/Wilson saga (I assume that is what you are cautious about) but the behaviour of various people seem to have been quite extraordinary. This has nothing to do with what one thinks of the actual political matters. Sir Christopher Meyer may or may not have been right about Blair and Straw. It is not his business to say so in public.

By: lindenen

lindenen — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 23:46:22 +0000

Has anyone ever mentioned the possibility of attempting to build another organization to compete with and maybe eventually supplant the CIA?

By: Lex

Lex — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 23:41:03 +0000

We have similar problems in the USA, of course. But we do not have the equivalent of the EU hanging over us. The attempt to bring in foreign notions via the Supreme Court adopting foreign law is likely to be thwarted, or much diminished, with Roberts and Alito in there. Things are a lot worse in Britain, I think. However the recent activity by the CIA is very worrisome — a government agency running a covert op against the executive branch is pretty bad, if that is what actually happened.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 23:16:51 +0000

Excellent article!

The Blair government has degraded the Civil Service and politicised the police. None of this would have been tolerated by British MPs were it not for the European model which, with its governance by bureaucrats, has diffused and dissipated all sense of responsibility in elected representatives.

Look for more of this as the EU jaganath rolls forward inexorably.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 23:02:23 +0000

Politicians represent their constituency? How revolting!