Ross Douthat: The End of European Democracy

The meltdowns of governments in Italy and Greece filled the world's op-ed pages with the word "technocrat," as in the type of person brought in to clean up the mess. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat says euroskeptics may have been right about the loss of national sovereignty the E.U. represented. "This is precisely the future that almost every informed commentator assumes Europe needs to embrace in order to save the euro and prevent an economic meltdown." A surge of nationalism in Europe would be such a disaster for the world's economy that Americans shouldn't wish for the end of the euro. "But that’s easy for us to say: it isn’t our self-government that’s at stake."