Re: <nettime> On the return of the interventionist state 7 fact-check

[János Sugár <sj@c3.hu>]

At 1:23 PM +0200 9/15/21, Andreas Broeckmann wrote:
> Dear David,
>
> please, fact-check; this is incorrect:
>
> >  the most powerful decision-making body in the EU is
> >  the European Commission is comprised of unelected officials
>
> You may see deficits in the following procedure, but there are in 
> fact elections and democratic confirmations:
>
> "The president-elect selects potential Vice-Presidents and 
> Commissioners based on suggestions from EU countries. The list of 
> nominees has to be approved by all EU heads of state or government, 
> meeting in the European Council. ... Following Parliament's vote[*], 
> the Commissioners are appointed by the European Council. ..."
>
> (* Remember that, in autumn 2019, the European Parliament rejected 
> the Romanian and Hungarian commissioners-elect first proposed by U. 
> von der Leyen, due to "conflicts of interest.")
>
> If the Commission is ruled, as you claim, by a "neo-liberal 
> orthodoxy", then this selection process shows that the problem is 
> much bigger than just the assembly of Commissioners. (And arguably 
> the EU of 2021 is not any more the EU of 2010.)
>
> Moreover, the "most powerful decision-making body in the EU" is 
> clearly the European Council:
>
> "The members of the European Council are the heads of state or 
> government of the 27 EU member states, the European Council 
> President and the President of the European Commission."
>
> As we have seen in the last years, the role of the European 
> Parliament has been strengthened gradually, if too slowly.
>
> Otherwise, thank you for pointing out some of the problematic 
> concepts and levels of argumentation in the reference text!
>
> Regards,
> -a
>
>
> Am 15.09.21 um 11:57 schrieb d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk:
> > Thanks Paolo for this very interesting article. Just a few 
> > questions that I imagine will be answered by reading the book.
> >
> > I am unclear what is meant here by 'the state'. Is it 
> > interchangeable with 'government'? Does the argument that 
> > neoliberalism (market fundamentalism) is being replaced by 
> > 'neostatism' mean that you see neoliberalism as a kind of polity or 
> > set of constitutional arrangements rather than an economic 
> > orthodoxy?
> >
> > To take one example the most powerful decision-making body in the 
> > EU is the European Commission is comprised of unelected officials 
> > whose principal task is to ensure that no national election of a 
> > member state will ever overturn the parameters of the neo-liberal 
> > orthodoxy. Anyone who doubts this should remember what happened to 
> > Greece in the debt crisis of 2009/10. So do you see the Commission 
> > as an example of a 'neostate'? Or is it something else again? Is 
> > the EU Commission included in the book?
> >
> > I am curious whether your analysis of the neo-state addresses the 
> > current position of 'liberal democracy'which (for better or for 
> > worse) is in a (over used word) crisis. It seems to me that the 
> > liberal view of the state continues to trade on the old the 
> > increasingly tired old ruse of making a virtue of obscuring the 
> > answer to the question, who governs?   them or us, people or 
> > government. This deliberate ambiguity is the beating heart of 
> > classical liberalism and seen as a way holding the line between 
> > tyranny vs mob rule. But its effect is simply to keep the status 
> > quo in place.  This dubious magic trick (once described as the 
> > manufacturing of consent) has apart at the seams to be replaced by 
> > a techno/populist logic that depends on the 'manufacture of 
> > dissent'.
> >
> > None of this hall of mirrors would matter if we were not facing a 
> > climate emergency that needs decision, action and immediate deep 
> > change.
> >
> > I am looking forward to reading the book.
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