The draft of the proposed European Union constitution in 2003 included this quote, from ancient Greek historian Thucydides: ''Our constitution … is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the greatest number.''

That quote didn't make the final version of the constitution (which was rejected in 2005). A good thing too. It would have been cruelly ironic. The European Union is the exact opposite of Thucydides' ideal.

Modern Europe shows just what happens when societies grant extraordinary power to elites and technocratic experts. Europe's slow-burn sovereign debt crisis is exposing a massive chasm between the elite who run the European Union's political and economic institutions, and the European citizens who have to live with their decisions.

Last weekend, citizens of Cyprus learnt all their bank accounts were going to be subject to a one-time tax of at least 6.7 per cent in return for an economic bailout.

The deal was presented as a fait accompli, negotiated between a new Cyprus president (he'd only been in the job a few weeks) and a bevy of banking officials and European bureaucrats. Approval by the Cypriot Parliament was to be a mere formality. It had all been decided.