[pp.int.general] PPI platform for EU Election 2009

[Reinier Bakels]

>> I think we should not loose the essence out of sight. Which is imho that 
>> referenda are VERY tricky.
> That is not the essence for PIRATA: the essence for PIRATA is that there 
> must be counterweight & control mechanisms available to the citizens to 
> avoid /representatives/ -notice the italic font-style- misrepresenting 
> eligible voters and deciding the opposite from people's will.

Sorry, I did not mean the PP essence, but the essence of our debate on 
referenda.

There are various reasons why politicians don't "obey" their voters. I do 
not necessarily disagree with you, but I think there are two essential 
aspects:

* European politics, and even member state politics on issues such as 
copyright and privacy, suffer from a total lack of public visibility. If 
there is any political debate, it is fueled by a) potential rights owners b) 
conservative politicians who hate privacy and believe that we should use all 
available technology to spy everybody everywhere at any time, for protection 
against terrorists. In this opaque situation, politicians can do whatever 
they want. The remedy is: inform, inform, inform, inform, inform, inform
* there is the chicken-and-egg problem that politicians divert their 
attention from topics as uninteresting as copyright, so the general public 
(e.g. newspapers) do not get involved in the debate, so the topic naturally 
has a low priority.

Movements such as PP can play a role in informing the public that well 
exceeds the size of the party in number of seats.

reinier