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Europeans: a theoretical identity (Helen Szamuely, EUObserver, 8/11/2003)

Müller notes that ... most of the discussion about the Union and its various aspects has been conducted in nineteenth century terms. Noticeably neither he, nor other European intellectuals mention the most important nineteenth century terms: democracy and liberty....

What the European Union has tried to do is abandon the inconvenient political ideas: liberty, constitutionalism, democracy, precisely defined rights and duties and relationship between the state and the individual, as well as more detailed ones like accountability. Instead, it aims to introduce a political structure which is largely managerial – greater efficiency and transparency rather than political accountability and definition of various responsibilities are the much discussed phenomena.

Unfortunately, Europe's model of managerial practice is also drawn from the 19th century: the hierarchical command-and-control corporation. Especially since the rise of computers and networks, management has been changing. Knowledge and decision-making power are distributed from the center to the people. More persons are involved in every decision, and checks and balances can be placed on every individual's authority to make sure it serves the common good.

By refusing to define decision processes and allocate decision-making authority, the EU Constitution inevitably must allocate the authority to define how decisions will be made to some central authority -- the managers at the top of the hierarchy. Those managers inevitably obtain autocratic powers, of the sort by which Henry Ford ran Ford Motor Company. The whole approach echoes the 'scientific socialism' and 'scientific management' that was so widely admired in the 1910s and 1920s, and put into practice by the likes of Mussolini.

The new EU Constitution may be seen by future historians as the last gasp of an intensely conservative elite, seeking to preserve the era of command-and-control authority. But as corporate experience shows, managements who lag the times cause their institutions to fail and usually end up overthrown.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at August 13, 2003 11:02 AM