George Papandreou: Imagine a European democracy without borders

Greece has been the poster child for European economic crisis, but former Prime Minister George Papandreou wonders if it's just a preview of what's to come. "Our democracies," he says, "are trapped by systems that are too big to fail, or more accurately, too big to control" -- while "politicians like me have lost the trust of their peoples." How to solve it? Have citizens re-engage more directly in a new democratic bargain.

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[fluibertje]

this guy is absolutely right! I was very surprised that he was removed after he said, lets do a referendum. The best way forward in Europe is to structure like the Swiss.

Direct democracy (referenda) on all levels where individual states can have their own laws voted by the people of that state and federal laws voted for by people of all states.
Works in Switzerland now for 400 years and be honest, its not a 3rd world country hehehe.

[Chrisnes]

This guy is actually brilliant. I think he's completely right.

[xmck]

13 years later, and nothing has changed.
Greece is in a loop that's slowly breaking into a spiral. I say this as an observant citizen.
While this indisputably charismatic man is correct, his words, especially regarding a united Europe, are unfortunately within the realm of a utopia.
Don't believe me? Look at how the ever-fragmented Europe is on the losing side of all the changes that have come to pass, occupying said side alone. While the US and now the slowly formed BRICS prosper from the atrocities they've committed (yes, I am talking about Ukraine.)
Greece and the entirety of Europe were and are pawns of a greater power, and there is nothing we can do about it. We dare try anything, and they will concoct another 10+ year plan to push us further into the gutter.
They say that history repeats itself, but when each repetition comes with a greater volume of issues than the last, this is no longer a matter of repetition. It is a matter of receiving the punishment for the detriments we have caused as pawns, down to the very citizen. A karmic butterfly effect, if you will. This happens because we, as a collective, prefer to take the shortcut instead of putting the work necessary behind research and learning before acting. It all starts there, and the majority refuses to even acknowledge that such a path exists, mainly due to ignorance or laziness. The first part of tackling an issue is realising that there is one. Well, we have realised that there is a problem (it doesn't take a genius to do so), but we would rather ignore it and moan or point fingers when the world finally keels over and crushes us.
Is it time for Europeans to accept our fate? I do not know.
My point -> 17:18 I know no one wants to hear it, but 13 years later, we still are.

[saleemisgod]

"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made." Jean Giraudoux.

Sums this fella up.

[Ibitsae]

You can open a history book and see how well that has always turned out. It's not like we can go much worse by trying something different.

[Efilzeo]

I agree with him, the system collapsed because there is this gap between Europe and single States which smash them both. The only solution is to unify them clearly, so to make a real Europe and not only an economic one.

[SoFGR]

606 people made the wrong decision, just like back in 2009

GIORGAKI GAMIESAI !

[chrismoderate]

Even if this guy was bad with his position of prime minister in Greece, His argument in this Ted Talk seems pretty solid and it is hard to beat. But still he had not many options with the Greek crisis thing due to Germany not caring about really helping Greece. Glad it got mostly better over there though!

[lomx]

When I read the comments here, I get the tragic feeling that we have the democracy that we deserve

[SigurdurGunnarsson]

"Today we have globilized the markets, but we have not globilized our democratic institusions." - True for Europe

[dayofthedeaddead]

1.500.000 unemployed and more than half of small business have shut down since 2010 in Greece....and he travels the world giving speeches and sharing HIS VISION OF DEMOCRACY and a better world...

[MarconySwepnos]

He said corporations and financial constructions such as markets are now so large as to have more power than the mostly smaller democratic institutions and that the only democratic institution big enough would have to be on a European or global scale.

[DavidAKZ]

it's called allowing the banks and the Greek Central bank to sign up to Credit Default Swap (CDS) contracts based loans. The loan repayments were manipulated up courtesy of CDS . This man profited handsomely from this situation while ordinary people needed to bring clean sheets and bandages to hospital .

[ElizaMogha]

he is very knowledgeable about failure of democracy. He created a huge chaos in Greece. From his personal experience, then, he can explain this topic he chose very well.

[Snagabott]

He didn't destroy a country. He failed to stop its destruction, that's true, but he wasn't alone to blame.

[fullfist]

exactly, thanks for clarifying.

but in USA there is only one USA bond/IOU of the Unites States Treasury. the financial ups and downs of the American States are on the even playing field.

In Europe, national debt and loaning is presented as the altruistic "good will" of the industrial power-houses to the provincial Nation-states which cannot possibly compete
they can control how much they input back into the Euro-zone, and obviously they would rather the provinces cost-cut to death

[pyonchan]

everybody is getting way too emotional, the content of this talk is very thought provoking and he has many good points made in his argument

[michaelmcmedia]

I didn't voice support for the US system, just used it as a comparison. If he's such a fan of participation, why does he not talk about governance options like direct democracy, or libertarianism?

Having money regulated on the national level isn't the problem we are facing today. The problem is that governments have agreed to commission currency as debt rather than credit backed by the wealth of the nation. This creates a need for exponential GDP growth that will always result in crisis.

[lsynno]

So he admits that Greece lied through its front teeth about its then says the clams that they're irresponsible are unfounded.

[fullfist]

an American political understands that let's say: Idaho, cannot possibly produce as much due to geographic and technical reasons, but the state resources, wilderness, connecting infrastructure etc in some way benefits all the states and so its natural to patch up the budge hole from the power-house states like California, New York etc

Do American states-men honestly have to explain to voters in Washington why some less powerful states need to be invested in?