ABSTRACT
The primary lawmaking body of the European Communities (EC) is the Council of Ministers, which is unusual among legislatures in its reliance on unanimous or nearly unanimous voting. The economics literature includes an analysis of unanimous decisions that is useful in suggesting the kinds of proposals that are likely to be passed under such a rule. The only way to achieve legislative unanimity in redistributive policies is to make sure that the redistributions are all from the inarticulate and slightly burdened masses to the active and vocal minority, and it would be hard to describe EC redistributive policies in other terms. The council consists of one minister from each of the member governments. It would appear that the legislation passed by the council has little to do with supplying and paying for public goods—the functions of government that traditional public finance has specialized in.
