.. that said we can't escape the fact that voter dissatisfaction and government action or inaction are not independent of each other .. e.g.
Wages Have Been Stagnant For 40 Years But It’s Not The Fault Of American Workers
by Bryce Covert Sep 2, 2015 12:00 pm .. one bit ..
The paper notes that there are three dynamics that can explain the divergence between growth in productivity and growth in wages and benefits: growing inequality in compensation, or skyrocketing pay for those at the top of the economy compared to everyone else; a greater share of income going toward corporate profits and not wages; and the increase in consumer prices that means wages don’t stretch as far. The first two basically indicate growing income inequality, and together they account for more than two-thirds of the divergence between productivity and pay between 1973 and 2014. And it’s getting worse with time: Between 2000 and 2014, these factors made up 87.2 percent of the gap. .. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/09/02/3697832/epi-wages-productivity/ -------
Ukip leader Nigel Farage, believed leaving the EU was a way to "take back control." (Reuters/ Toby Melville)
But such statements rely on a grossly oversimplified depiction of freedom, says Alexis Papazoglou, a philosophy lecturer at Royal Holloway University of London. In the fuller sense of the idea, the UK and its people had more freedom within the EU.
Leave campaigners insisted that the UK would be freer outside the EU, as it would no longer have to abide by the constraints imposed by EU law (which can be seen as an increase in negative freedom). But the UK and its people also gained freedoms from EU membership.
“As a member of the EU, I may give up the right to control my borders in terms of EU citizens,” says Papazoglou. “But then my citizens also gain the freedom to travel and work in a lot of countries.”
Meanwhile, in order to have positive freedom, you need the means to carry out your goals. It’s all very well being theoretically free to make certain decisions, but that matters very little if you don’t have the power to effectively carry out such acts. So the UK might now be free to say whatever it thinks on climate change and other world affairs, but it will likely have less of a platform to effect any change globally.
“If my power is diminished, I can’t actually do the things I want,” says Papazoglou. “I’m free only in a superficial way. No one’s actively stopping me but at the same time, I don’t have the means to do what I want.”
Papazaglou also argues that the notion of the EU imposing undemocratic edicts on the UK is false. In fact, he says, the EU is a highly democratic institution, and arguably embodies a more nuanced version of democracy than the EU referendum itself—in which slim majority vote on a referendum has the power to effect the course of a country for the foreseeable future.
“The European Union ironically is an institution that doesn’t always work on a simple majority rule,” he says. “It deliberates over many months, trying to reach a consensus between the different parties. The aim is to find as much common ground as possible.”
Philosophically speaking, Papazoglou says the EU was “the closest thing we had” to the ideal of enlightenment thinkers, such as Emmanuel Kant, who believed that humans should be able to use rationality and discussion to reach an agreement.
Though a philosophical discussion of freedom might seen too abstract for day-to-day politics, Papazoglou points out that much of the debate around whether the UK should remain in the EU was focused on abstract ideas such as democracy, sovereignty, and freedom, not just practical considerations. And so, if the UK was to make a decision about its standing in the world based on a concept of freedom, there should at least have been a nuanced discussion of what freedom is.
Spain’s elections this weekend let more disgruntled Europeans vote against the status quo
Pablo Iglesias (center) leads a coalition of far-left, anti-establishment political parties that just might clinch a majority in Spain’s parliamentary elections on Sunday. (Reuters/Andrea Comas)
Written by Jake Flanagin June 25, 2016
Following tight on the heels of the Brexit vote, Spanish legislative elections on Sunday (June 26) are an important test of how much further disarray the European electorate’s frustrations will inflict on those committed to holding the region together.
An election in Dec. 2015 failed to consolidate a national government, leaving none of Spain’s parties with an outright majority, and precipitating months of political gridlock. Currently, the conservative Partido Popular (PP) holds the largest number of parliamentary seats, followed by the Socialist Party (PSOE). Far-left, anti-austerity Podemos and the centrist Ciudadano parties have additionally maintained substantial presences, in third and fourth place respectively.
Polls suggest Sunday’s vote isn’t likely to heal Spain’s increasingly fractured political landscape, however. With unemployment hovering around 20%, Spaniards are more frustrated with the status quo than ever—a sentiment arguably responsible for driving fringe parties to the forefront of Spanish politics in the first place.
Other major European elections to take place in 2016 include those for the Czech senate, the Lithuanian parliament, and Bulgarian presidency in October, the same month that Italy will hold a constitutional referendum on the format of its major legislature. Elections for the Romanian parliament will be held in November. Moving into 2017, Germany will elect a president in February, the Dutch will vote in a parliament in March, and France and Hungary will elect their presidents in April. (The latter two are of particular interest, given the growing popularity of the far-right National Front in France, and the current primacy of its Hungarian counterpart Fidesz.)
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