Tsipras and Varoufakis claimed that they could use the Greek people’s support in elections and the referendum to increase their bargaining power in an intergovernmental forum. They discovered that there was no truth in this claim. They fatally misunderstood the nature of the Eurozone and the EU. These are not institutions in which different sovereign nations reach a compromise on their interests, as they erroneously believed going into the negotiations. They are institutions in which national governments agree to subordinate their national will and interest to a set of technical rules dictated by market imperatives. As Syriza discovered, this institutionalized self-limitation of national sovereignty by European governmental elites is implacably hostile to the idea that policy should be accountable to electoral majorities. The essence of the Eurozone and the EU is anti-democratic.
Like I've been saying, capitalism (economic liberalism) and democracy (social and political liberalism) are antithetical. There is a contradiction at the heart of liberalism making it impossible to reconcile international economic liberalism, national sovereignty, and democratic governance without limitation. thecurrentmoment
The Grand Old Duke of Athens Peter Ramsay