Word: parliament
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More than 100 years before the French and American revolutions, a series of convulsions in Britain built the essentials of the modern democratic state. A civil war, and then what was termed "the Glorious Revolution," established the constitutional primacy of Parliament - a body whose principal chamber is accountable to, and removable by, the popular will, expressing itself in periodic elections. A "parliamentary democracy" is how Britain describes itself, with both pride and, occasionally, condescension for those (as they say) in less happy lands...
...pocket rather than dumping it on the taxpayer. "As it's not a full-fat royal trip," Lowther-Pinkerton said, "the Queen has very graciously offered to foot the bill, which is very kind of her." It's also a good p.r. move. In recent weeks Britain's Parliament has been engulfed in scandal after a national newspaper revealed that scores of parliamentarians used taxpayer money to cover personal expenses - including a $48,000 gardening bill that included maintenance of a floating "duck island." (See the top 10 most outrageous U.K. expense claims...
...structure is flawed, so is the content. The Parliament is often seen as a retirement home for washed-up national politicians. Its debates often drift towards a pomposity that is only amplified by translation into 23 official languages. The body's monthly commute from Brussels to Strasbourg, a nonsensical legacy of French pride, merely reinforces suspicions that MEPs spend lots of money to scant effect. (Read: "Brussels Beats Up On Bulgaria...
Indeed, voters in Utrecht seem more concerned by the antics of Dutch anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders than they are with, say, the E.U.'s plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20% by 2020. Wilders wants to abolish the European Parliament altogether. "Every voter who wants to signal that the European Union is good for nothing in its current form can do so by voting for Geert Wilders," he said. His PVV party, like other political outliers, is expected to benefit from mainstream voter apathy. The Trotskyite anti-capitalist movement of Olivier Besancenot could muster 10% of France...
...sober minds are needed. Despite the dwindling turnout, the Parliament is still a powerful legislative body. MEPs debate, amend and either reject or approve E.U. legislation on vital and concrete issues like climate change, immigration, financial regulation and employment. But in Utrecht, few seem to know or care what MEPs do. That makes campaigning much tougher, of course. "People should be interested," says Judith Merkies, a candidate for the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA). "It is about their lives, their place in the community and the world." At the same time, she accepts that voter apathy is a message in itself...