this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
111 points (96.6% liked)

Europe

8484 readers
1 users here now

News/Interesting Stories/Beautiful Pictures from Europe ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ

(Current banner: Thunder mountain, Germany, ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช ) Feel free to post submissions for banner pictures

Rules

(This list is obviously incomplete, but it will get expanded when necessary)

  1. Be nice to each other (e.g. No direct insults against each other);
  2. No racism, antisemitism, dehumanisation of minorities or glorification of National Socialism allowed;
  3. No posts linking to mis-information funded by foreign states or billionaires.

Also check out !yurop@lemm.ee

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

EU has done really well on passing big laws such as GDPR in the recent years, while the US can't even seem to decide whether to fund their own government. Why do you think Europe is doing better than the US? One would think that since EU is more diverse it would be harder to find common ground. And there were examples of that during the Greece debt crisis. But not anymore, it seems.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

To expand on this as an American: our constitution is like a beta version of democracy. We have two legislative chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Senate awards two senators per state, which means a sparsely populated state like Wyoming (which has less people than my city) gets the same input as massive states like California, and can hold legislation hostage. Our house of representative seats are assigned by population (good), but the way the districts are drawn is left up to each state, which means the lines can be drawn in such a way to favor the party currently in power. (Gerrymandering) If you look at polls about big issues like universal healthcare or abortion or environmental action the majority of Americans often support the opposite of what gets passed. And it's because our system is flawed.

[โ€“] CrazyEddie041@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

the Congress and the Senate

The House of Representatives and the Senate. The two together compose Congress.

[โ€“] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

You're right! Editing

[โ€“] what_is_a_name@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There are plenty senates in EU states and EU also has multiple bodies where one state = one vote, and plenty EU resolutions need unanimous vote for passage giving (say 2.1M Slovenia veto over the other half billion people)

Giving more power to the unpopulated rural areas has not gone away at all.

[โ€“] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Is that the case for passing things like GDPR?