{"id":5522,"date":"2024-12-10T12:15:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T11:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/?p=5522"},"modified":"2024-12-10T12:30:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T11:30:03","slug":"strengthening-regions-to-strengthen-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2024\/12\/10\/strengthening-regions-to-strengthen-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Strengthening Regions to Strengthen Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nation-state is now too small to address epochal challenges. Yet populist governments undermine the European project by clinging to the defense of national identity. This paradox might be resolved by transferring powers to lower levels of government. Weakening central states could make it easier to build a European political community.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The rise of populist parties continues to reshape Western democracies. In the United States, Donald Trump remains a central figure. In Europe, following Italy\u2019s yellow-green government, France and Germany have taken center stage. Marine Le Pen now leads the French government, while the success of the AfD is destabilizing Germany\u2019s political system. Populist parties govern in the Netherlands, support the government in Sweden, and have recently won elections in Austria.<\/span><\/p>\n

What unites these political movements? Is populism truly a new political ideology that replaces or supplements the traditional left-right divide? And what explains its success across the Western world?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Loss of Self-Governance<\/b><\/h3>\n

All populist movements share one defining trait: they present themselves as the true defenders of \u201cthe people,\u201d protecting the interests of ordinary citizens against allegedly corrupt and unresponsive political and economic elites.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his prescient mid-1990s book, <\/span>Democracy\u2019s Discontent<\/span><\/i>, political philosopher Michael Sandel foresaw the success of populist parties. He argued that Western democracies are losing their ability to govern themselves. Trust in democratic institutions and their leaders depends on governments\u2019 ability to solve citizens\u2019 pressing problems. The capacity for self-governance and control over one\u2019s destiny, Sandel wrote, is fundamental to democracy. However, this capacity is eroding in Western democracies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Globalization, constraints imposed by financial markets, and the concentration of economic power have rendered states increasingly powerless. In Italy, this is compounded by past political missteps that inflated public debt and the pension system, stripping fiscal policy of flexibility. As a result, many crucial decisions affecting citizens are made outside parliaments and cabinets\u2014or not made at all due to a lack of viable options.<\/span><\/p>\n

This explanation for the success of populist parties is fundamentally sound. Governments\u2019 impotence, irrespective of their political leanings, has frustrated citizens\u2014especially the most naive, who are unaware of the structural constraints on self-governance. Populist leaders have capitalized on this frustration, portraying government ineffectiveness as the fault of previous leaders and proposing simplistic, counterproductive solutions. Supporting this view, a study by German economists Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick, and Christoph Trebesch, published in the <\/span>American Economic Review<\/span><\/i>, shows that populist governments perform worse than their predecessors (see their article in this issue).<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking ahead, governments\u2019 impotence is likely to grow, regardless of leadership. The fundamental issue is not merely globalization, financial markets, or public debt but the fact that the nation-state is now too small to address existential challenges: migration, climate change, and technological progress. These issues require solutions at a supranational level or by entities far larger than individual European countries. Without deeper European integration, individual states\u2019 inability to act will worsen, likely driving further support for populist parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building European Political Integration<\/b><\/h3>\n

This raises another issue: populist parties and their voters often defend communal and identity-based values (specific to local or national communities) over universal and supranational ones. In some respects, European populist parties are right to criticize the Brussels bureaucracy for making critical decisions without sufficient political participation. However, calling for the renationalization of sovereignty transferred to Brussels is counterproductive when these problems are better addressed at the European level. The logical path to enhancing self-governance is through European political integration, with greater direct political participation (not mediated by national governments) in electing a European government.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it is unclear whether Europe is ready for such a step. Sandel observed that functioning political institutions require citizens to identify with the community those institutions represent. Whether this is achievable in Europe today remains uncertain. Despite shared history and values, significant divides persist\u2014from language to relatively recent wars. Nationalist sentiments may still be too strong, not only among populist voters. To build a politically integrated Europe capable of effective self-governance, national identities must weaken, and a shared sense of European belonging must grow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Decentralization as a Path to a Political Europe<\/b><\/h3>\n

Herein lies a paradox, often overlooked in Italian political discourse. One clear way to weaken nation-states\u2019 grip on citizens is to decentralize functions to lower levels of government. Over time, this would erode national identity, which currently hinders European political integration. People naturally find it easier to identify with a local, homogeneous community\u2014such as their municipality or region\u2014than with a larger, more abstract entity. Transferring powers from central governments to regions would have precisely this effect: it would weaken the nation-state while strengthening regional governance, thereby facilitating the creation of a European political community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paradoxically, those advocating for regional empowerment at the expense of central governments\u2014such as the League\u2014are more aligned with building a political Europe than pro-European Democrats, who strongly oppose such decentralization.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nation-state is now too small to address epochal challenges. Yet populist governments undermine the European project by clinging to the defense of national identity. 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