Ireland and the Lisbon Vote

The bulk of the critical reaction to the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty falls into two camps, criticising the referendum process as inappropriate in addressing a complex reform measure or expressing frustration with the lack of attention to the actual issues in hand on the part of the Irish electorate. Fintan O'Toole's editorial in The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/14/ireland.eu) summarises both and then throws its hands up in despair at the inability of the people to recognise what it good for them. For all his despair though he underlines that the anti-treaty alliance was heterogeneous and held together by fear. What he does not do is ask what gave an opening to such an odd alliance. If the treaty had a strong political ideal mobilising it then fear would not have had such power.
If you are in favour of democracy as a form of political life and adhere to the ideal of a European Union neither legalism nor frustration is analytically sharp enough as a response to the loss; it needs to be analysed politically. It is easy to get distracted since there are so many interesting and important political elements to the vote. To take the American funding for Libertas as just one example, it is a clear sign that the policy positions of Condoleezza Rice and Robert Kagan, who see Europe as a long-term ally only if European Social Democracy can be undermined, is now guiding policy. Atlanticists of all colours have a new reality to deal with. Such tactical thinking, fascinating as it is, should not get in the way of a more profound critique of the pro-Lisbon case. If it really was such a good idea I find it hard to believe it would have been rejected.
The case for Lisbon was always hollow. It addresses problems in the structures and organisation of the expanded Union cleverly, but refuses to postulate a political vision for the Union. Pro-Union sentiment is animated by cosmopolitanism, but this moral ideal cannot respond to political problems about citizenship and rights. The Union is a fascinating experiment in confederation, it has built a substantial international rights jurisprudence that genuinely protects citizens and shapes the actions of states. It has the cultural and political resources from which a concrete vision of European citizenship could be generated. Instead we have relied on a fuzzy utilitarianism and this is not a compelling vision of a shared life to a community as politically-mobilised as Ireland. The vacuum that exists where an authentically political landscape should be found allows fear to govern decisions.
In the long run Ireland may have done the European Union a favour. The political base of the Union is too weak to carry the structures that have been built on it. We need to have the debate on shared visions of forms of life and the tragic choices between moral visions of the good life that constitutes modern politics. Postponing that debate by building a more efficient Union will ultimately destroy the entire project.