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The Europe of minorities
No single nation or racial group in Europe constitutes a majority. Indeed, some European ethnic groups have a combined population within Europe which exceeds the population of some member states. Unlike the case of nation states, European integration means that issues, of concern to people, will no longer be easily solved through a majority decision making process which, in the past, favoured the mainstream national populations. European issues can only be resolved through a system of governance which is fully responsive to this new reality, a Europe of minorities. The dissolution of a single identifiable majority raises the political stakes for every group. As a result, in the interests of all, European governance has to move towards a system which is fully responsive to minority interests. Without this evolution it will not be possible to sustain popular support through an effective engagement of the population and the democratic deficit will increase.
| Country populations (m) as % of European total
Source: GeoHive, The Netherlands |
The current population of the member states of the European Union is some 380 million. If the population of prospective candidate countries to the European Union is added to this total, the 'Greater European' population will be some 560 million.
The largest country in the European Union is Germany with a population of some 82.8 million. Currently the German population accounts for some 21.8% of the EU population and, with enlargement, this will decline to 14.8%. The United Kingdom, France and Italy will take up minority positions each with around 10% of the EU population. Countries like Sweden and Ireland will constitute some 1.6% and 0.67% of the European population respectively.
It is therefore evident that in terms of decision making, at the European level, Europe is already characetrised by minority interests and this will become more eccentuated as Europe expands.
Moving from majority to minority structures
Within nation states it is normal to find a majority, or mainstream population, and several smaller groups which constitute minorities. The systems of governance within European member states, both in terms of electoral system representation and popular influence on decision making, are associated with significant democratic deficits in the way in which minorities are treated. Indeed, quite often the institutions which are found to be most discriminatory are government agencies. Because in most democratic electoral structures one is dealing with a democracy based upon 'majority rule', there is an ineffective representation of minority interests. This is as true in electoral systems with 'proportional representation' as with those with the 'first past the post' systems. Racial and other forms of prejudice against minorities survives because the mainstream controls decision making through the 'democratic institutions' which often lever their value sets, prejudices and views of society.
In a Europe in which its citizens freely participate in a system of elections and governance, the reality of the Europe of minorities makes the current nation state democracies inappropriate.
Participatory development
In national 'mainstream' societies, the way in which laws and policy are developed and applied tend to reflect the values and preferences of those in the mainstream society and who often have a direct influence upon legislation and planning. In general terms the instances of conflict, or harm, resulting from enforcement of laws are associated with those people who did not influence the initiation of legislation and its development such as minority groups. Over time, law has become a collection of regulations which have to be 'obeyed' and for some sections of society law, and its practial application and interpretation, is to use it as a controlling factor of the population and can therefore be oppressive.
Moving to a consideration of how such a system should adjust to a situation where there is no mainstream group, participatory development becomes an essential component in building and achieving a more humane and harmonious solution. Participatory development is a means of facilitating the ability of European citizens to participate in the initiation, development and implementation of actions, policies and legislation. To better protect minority interests everyone needs to be able to influence the decisions which will affect them.
This concept is not original, it is a matter of concern expressed throughout history. Proposals for changes in, or as additions to, the law should, by right, come from any citizen. Other citizens should be free to support a proposal, and a widening array of people should be free to become involved in refining it. Part of this basis for initiating legislation is that those involved need to accept that what appears to be 'rational' from their individual standpoint, may not be so when applied in practice to people with differing circumstances. This does not mean that a law needs to be 'weak' to accommodate everyone but rather that the application of law needs to be subjected to a process which protects people from harm. The system with the most effective track record for managing complaints and appeals is the jury system. From the standpoint of minorities, a principle proposed in the English Magna Carta is of importance. That is, when judging a complaint, an independent group from the community should review the case and those who undertake this review must include peers or members of the complainant's minority group. This principle later gave rise to the jury system and it is indeed the jury system which can help protect the interests of minorities by bringing to bear the community conscience on any decision affecting any one of their members.
The salutory effect of juries is that they can nullify a law in any particular case. Therefore the law makers need to take this into account. This will result in more generally applicable, and therefore fair, laws. Legislators, even those making use of a broad participatory basis for legislative design, do not want to face the embarassment of facing, in each and every case, appeals which result in the nullification of the law.
The demise of majority voting
In Europe, the reality of the Europe of minorities heralds the death of majority voting and even 'qualified' majority voting. To protect all minority interests we need to move towards broad based participatory initiation and development legislation and policy. In its application at community level, juries of peers become the essential defenders of human rights, freedom by preventing the inappropriate application of the law.