The Politics of the Euro Crisis

News reports today indicate that German voters are ovewhelmingly against the Greek debt bailout which the Germany parliament must approve in a vote set for Monday.  As noted in today's story (http://news.yahoo.com/germans-overwhelmingly-oppose-greek-bailout-poll-141634352.html):

"the prospect of the ruling bloc failing to win a majority on its own would be a humiliating setback for Merkel, with some analysts and opposition leaders warning it could endanger her coalition.

Further signs of tension in the coalition emerged on Saturday when Merkel's Interior Minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, became the first member of her government to openly call for Greece to leave the euro zone."

Despite the fact that many governments have fallen in the course of the Euro crisis (including Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece), the recent focus has mainly been on the negotiations surrounding the Greek bailout.  Meanwhile, domestic politics has been playing out in their own way, as can be seen in the German poll and the riots in Greece. The democratic legitimacy of the European Union has always been an issue, with many discussions and analyses centered around the "democratic deficit" between the EU and the citizens of the member countries.  Unelected prime ministers in Italy and Greece have been brought in because of the need to have non-politicians who can take the tough measures it was felt were needed, in particular, fiscal austerity measures that previous democratically elected governments could or would not implement. Many analysts have talked about the dangers of a Greek default or a deeper recession in Europe, but more attention needs to be paid to the toll that the crisis is taking on the confidence of citizens in democratic institutions.