PHILADELPHIA REFLECTIONS
Musings of a Philadelphia Physician who has served the community for six decades

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related Topics

Legal Philadelphia
The American legal profession grew up in this town, creating institutions and traditions that set the style for everyone else. Boston, New York and Washington have lots of influential lawyers, but Philadelphia shapes the legal profession.

The Constitution
The Constitution was not just a paper written at a convention. It was a choice between uncertain alternatives, and new difficulties soon were revealed by making those choices. Its reliance on compromise displays the powerful influence of 18th Century Quaker Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Changes the Nature of Money
Banking changed its fundamentals, on Third Street in Philadelphia, three different times.

Federalism Slowly Conquers the States
Thirteen sovereign colonies voluntarily combined their power for the common good. But for two hundred years, the new federal government kept taking more power for itself.

Lessons For the European Union

{http://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/images/alliance-macau.jpg}
alliance

Old Europe is long accustomed to instructing Americans in matters of deeper significance, so they have a little trouble acknowledging that the present formation of the European Union is based on the American design, in Philadelphia, of 1787 and perhaps will encounter some of the same problems. The success of that design is the main motive for imitating it, the difficulties Europeans seek to overcome are the same ones we faced, and the difficulties the Europeans will discover in the future after they do it, will be much the same ones we discovered. They can take it or leave it, but here are a few observations.

{http://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/images/declaration5.jpg}
The Declaration of Independence

The people in power in the individual nations of Europe, and the political factions which elected them, don't really want to give up their power to a central government in Strasbourg. Exactly the same reluctance inspired our thirteen colonies in the Eighteenth Century. Having multiple sovereign governments, however, soon proves inefficient, costly, and dangerous if you have powerful enemies. Free trade and a common currency seem like good things, but there are plenty of people who will resist them because they currently benefit from tariffs, subsidies, protectionism, even blatant favoritism, and don't want to change the rules in the middle of the game. Furthermore, if transitions are too rapid, even from a bad system to a good one, changes can prove extremely disruptive. The Europeans have a big problem we didn't have, of multiple languages, so harmony will be slower to arrive -- try to imagine a common market union in the Balkans.

" But our experience teaches an important principle, unwritten in the Constitution. The outstanding message of the American experience from 1787 to 1850, quite unforeseen by the Founding Fathers, is that no party in power can see the merit of self-restraint until it has spent some time out of power. Nor can any party of complainers and reformers see the true merit of stability and caution until it has spend some time in power, itself. Let's suggest a rule to the Europeans: every political faction is untrustworthy until it has spent two terms in office, and then two terms out of office.

Maybe even that assessment is too generous; after all, in 1850 we were just getting ready to have our Civil War. You'd certainly hate to think it was essential to have one of them, until you reflect that Europe really has had four or five civil wars that were larger than our own during the past two hundred years. Could it be that peaceful union really does lead to more peace? Hard to say for certain, of course, but the evidence is intriguing.

(998)

EUROPE is better than america
Posted by: Dominic from UK    |    Dec 20, 2007 10:11 AM 794
Please enter your comments here

Name

Comments