Ok, I'm invested now, I'll jump right in to this debate, so excuse me if I kick back now with a cup of tea and hold forth:
I stand up with Michel completely and say I find some of the key examples of American exceptionalism really weird, particularly in the way they effect the debate. Gun Control/Abortion/Gay marriage/Death Penalty/Flag Burning - they all baffle and repulse me, this was the reason I blew up at the tolerance debate. These issues get a massive amount of air-space in the US, you guys really care about them, but by comparison in the EU these issues just don't get any traction at all, honestly... Take a look at this extremely minor BBC news article:
The BBC on the liberalisation of abortion in PortugalThere is a "debate" attached to this piece, and a glancing look will show that about 50% of the people who cared enough to pay comment were non-Europeans. As you can see, the EU is mostly liberal about it, but Malta, Poland, Ireland and Spain are all pretty illiberal. And yet there is no pan-European pro-abortion coalition, and it's left almost entirely down to a national political level. The EU does not get involved, and no-one asks them to. Anyway, I respect Steve on this and I don't want to wade into a big debate on abortion, I just wanted to point out the most blatant example of the EU really not caring about an American issue.
When I sit down and think about it, I think a lot of the reason for this is that it is government's and elected officials who decide what issues are "European Level" issues, as opposed to national level. In the US there is a national level media (something completely lacking in the EU) that lobbies on these social issues, whereas EU level lobbying is almost entirely economic/national politics. This means the US-wide media drives these issues up to the top of the political debate, and they end up as federal. In Britain almost no-one considers themselves to have any right (or reason) to have an opinion on the Irish abortion question. Further, because we speak so many different languages, it's not really possible to have a pan-European media-debate on the issue in any coherent way. While in parts of the US where democracy would lead to an abortion ban, New Englanders/West Coasters feel a real investment in the issue. For me, and where I am probably with the Daily Kos on this, is that these issues
never go away, in which they are very similar to Europe's Secession issues (I am near universally opposed to secession). They drive the debate for decades, and they contaminate all of politics with the extreme polarisation they cause. I find the way American's discuss Abortion (and the way the Scots discuss Secession) utterly toxic. On the other hand, I'm not a citizen of your country, so I only see the effect on the debate, not on people's lives.
this is not business as usual, this is history happening on our doorstep - but very quietly...
Very true--and the Euro is the new Dollar for the world. How about: The European Union is occupied with serious issues of the day, such as expansion and consolidation of it's Union, and forming what is in effect a single Federal "country" which is larger more populous and diverse than the United States, and this activity fully satisfies everyone's need for politics, whereas the more complacent United States is content to "fiddle with the deck chairs on the Titanic" by debating non-issues as it declines as a superpower?
This on the other hand is dead wrong... Because the fact is most Europeans don't even notice what is happening to the state of the union. The vast majority of people in my country couldn't find Romania on a map, let alone Moldova or Macedonia. and almost no-one pays attention to the ins and outs of EU accession and integration. This goes back to the issue of a pan-European debate/media, because it doesn't exist. I'm not sure if I consider this a good or a bad thing, the lack of a debate means that much of the bile of self-interest/gossip politics is kept isolated at a national level, whereas the EU level of politics can pretty much get on with doing what it's doing. The problem is this leads to a lot of mis-understanding and a pretty huge lack of accountability, and people get pretty angry about it. You only have to mention the words: Russia (particularly gas), Turkish Accession, EU Constitution and Agricultural Subsidies in a room full of disparate Europeans to cause a god-awful fight. In most European countries, because the actual progress on a supra-national level is invisible (no-one notices) then what is seen is the minutae of a body that isn't accountable to the national debates (and secession demonstrates just how nationalist the EU is) and people get angry.
Mention the Euro to a Brit/Swede and you wont hear an analysis of whether it is in our economic interests, but a national level view on keeping the pound/krona.
If Europe
could manage to hold a pan-European debate I imagine it could be every bit as caustic as it is in America, the south of Europe is predominantly Catholic/Orthodox Christian and this plays a much stronger role in their politics than in the central north where Protestantism/The Enlightenment emerged and which are predominantly agnostic. Financial debates would smash between the rich West and the poor East. Integrationist debates would riot between the original seven nations and Britain/Scandinavia would get a kicking for their fundamentally exceptionalist views. But these debates don't happen, because we are divided by language, and because of this no-one feels the need to force the other side to accept their view.
So yeah, my two cents in this is that it comes down to Europe's status as a quasi-confederacy and America's status as a federal state.. With the added effect of different languages isolating the debates to a national level, while people generally trust the supra-state to get on with doing what it's doing. I guess what I'm saying is that the EU represents histories grandest attempt to take the politics out of politics. The media continues to do the job of checking the government for corruption, but it cannot force the government to take sides on wedge issues, because there is no single individual to lobby, and no executive powerful enough to force it through. It's democratic accountability (people still vote for their representatives) but people don't actually follow what their representatives are doing. Is politics without the politics a good idea?
When I talk politics, I always go for the systematic features, because they are the easiest to analyse. But I think there is more to America/Europe differences than just political/media systems... I think there is much to be said for how
people individually view the world in both sides of the pond... Because while the EU lent on many countries over some of these issues (No capital punishment is a criteria for EU accession), others just happened because Europeans are in general agreement on it. The EU has made very few moves on Gun Control on a supra-national level, but nonetheless it doesn't feature in everyday life in the EU in any way like it does in the US. A good example would be how on almost all these issues Canada shares something approaching an EU viewpoint, but it's not at all due to European political influence, and comes down to similarities of culture.