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EU commissioners are appointed by member governments, in much the same way that civil servants are appointed by politicians. In most democracies there are three
by tankenmate 4y ago
EU commissioners are appointed by member governments, in much the same way that civil servants are appointed by politicians. In most democracies there are three pillars of government, legislative, executive and judicial. Commissioners are a part of the executive. And here lies the difference, the amount of decision making power in the hands of executive vs the legislative, and whether the members of the executive need to be directly elected vs indirectly elected.
You could also make the case that representative democracies aren't as good as direct democracies because citizens don't get to vote on laws directly.
Obviously there are trade offs between having elected heads of the executive who are more directly accountable to the citizenry but have less subject matter knowledge vs indirectly elected executive who have somewhat less accountability but more knowledge. There is also the case of less corruption because the indirectly elected heads of the executive aren't as beholden to special interests. Which I personally feel is a huge benefit.
- mulvya 4y ago> There is also the case of less corruption because the indirectly elected heads of the executive aren't as beholden to special interests. Unless these heads of the executive need private sector jobs after their tenure.
- tankenmate 4y agoThis is true, but no more so than politicians.
- HPsquared 4y agoIt's just yet another level removed from the voters. If representative democracy is imperfect, then having another level to represent the representatives is more imperfect still.
- arrrg 4y agoI want the EU council to hand over many of its powers to the parliament and commission. (I’m fine with the parliament itself proposing and voting on the commission head, I’m not in favor of a directly elected head – but that’s just the German in me speaking where the federal government is set up exactly that way.) It‘s the national governments standing in the way of that, not the EU itself.
- tankenmate 4y agoThe flip side to this argument is that it's harder to have a demagogue in the executive if they are indirectly elected. Or worse still a plutocrat dressed up as a demagogue.
- account42 4y agoYes because now the plutocrat only has to bribe a few instead of having to appeal to the masses. Much better. The solution to people making uninformed votes is to inform them, not to lessen their ability to vote.