29 MARCH 2020
History shows that when leaders are forced to take emergency action, power tends to be relocated to small and opaque groups.
BY JONATHAN WHITE
GETTY IMAGES
Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron at an EU summit in Brussels in February.
- https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2020/03/crisis-trap-why-eu-must-not-sideline-democracy-it-tackles-coronavirus
“The worst defect weak republics can have is to be indecisive, so that all their decisions are taken out of necessity, and if any good comes to them, it comes through force of circumstance rather than through their own prudence.” Machiavelli’s words seem especially apposite today, as governments around the world are accused of dithering before the coronavirus threat. Indecision followed by hurried adaptation seems the rule. In Europe, this applies not just to national governments but to the supranational institutions of the European Union, to whom many have looked for a decisive response yet whose actions can still seem painfully slow.
It…
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