Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Democracy, European-Style: Who Cares What the Public Thinks, If Their Élites Know Better?

A poll by the local newspaper found that over 70 percent of the public opposed removing Mr. Schwarzenegger's name from the stadium.
That is one of the things we learn in Richard Bernstein's article on the Graz authorities' decision to change the name of the city's Stadion Graz-Liebenau. Another thing we learn is that one of the ideas in circulation
was to name the stadium after the Crips, the gang that Mr. Williams founded.
The idea never seems to have gotten off the ground, but on a continent where a convicted murderer is name honorary citizen of Paris, why doesn't the idea itself surprize me? Why doesn't it surprize me at all?

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