I don't know nearly enough about the start of the EU - European history education here pretty much ends at WWII, and most of my research has focused on years prior to the 20th century. It might be what I need to focus on next, in terms of filling in my gaps.
Can I ask, from your vantage point, how much of the EU project is an incrementalist move toward free immigration, vs. other motives?
In the US, we've got the Affordable Care Act situation, where the legislation is ideally designed to be implemented everywhere, but because of the political situation there are holdouts, and that impedes the project from working as well as it was originally intended to -- there's a problem, but it's because not everyone will sign on, not because of flaws in the concept itself.
The idea of porous borders seems like it could be vulnerable to similar, with it not being feasible to get everyone on board at once, but lags in establishing a unified system temporarily contributing to inequalities or other social tensions. But wasn't part of the thing also about the post-WWII need for political unity, as well?
The Brexit thing looks scary all around, tbh, and it's seemed important to sit up and take notice of what y'all have got going on over there. Especially because our left is vulnerable to some of the same wedges that have hampered the UK left!
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Date: 2016-10-14 05:10 am (UTC)Can I ask, from your vantage point, how much of the EU project is an incrementalist move toward free immigration, vs. other motives?
In the US, we've got the Affordable Care Act situation, where the legislation is ideally designed to be implemented everywhere, but because of the political situation there are holdouts, and that impedes the project from working as well as it was originally intended to -- there's a problem, but it's because not everyone will sign on, not because of flaws in the concept itself.
The idea of porous borders seems like it could be vulnerable to similar, with it not being feasible to get everyone on board at once, but lags in establishing a unified system temporarily contributing to inequalities or other social tensions. But wasn't part of the thing also about the post-WWII need for political unity, as well?
The Brexit thing looks scary all around, tbh, and it's seemed important to sit up and take notice of what y'all have got going on over there. Especially because our left is vulnerable to some of the same wedges that have hampered the UK left!