As the economic meltdown across most of Europe continues to take its toll, European Union (EU) bosses in Brussels and national leaders across the continent are moving forward with more of the same half-baked policies that led to the crisis in the first place — centralization, integration, central banking, high taxes, and more.

But very few people seem as concerned as they should be. Not that it matters — the ones who are worried are largely being ignored anyway. In the process of erecting an even more monstrous and totalitarian union, voters and taxpayers — the ones who pay the bills — are being completely marginalized.

New institutions are quickly popping up to extract and devour ever-more wealth from the struggling populations. The people, of course, weren’t even consulted. In fact, the EU cabal has even started overthrowing elected national leaders and replacing them with blatantly servile puppet regimes.

No nation is perfect. And of course, Switzerland is no exception — it has plenty of flaws. But there’s a good reason why America’s Founding Fathers once looked to the tiny alpine nation for inspiration while laying the foundations of constitutional government in the New World. The Swiss model works — it keeps the peace, promotes individual liberty and leads to a prosperous society.

A great deal has been written, even in recent times, about what the American people and other governments could learn from the Swiss in terms of statesmanship. In a piece entitled “Freedom vs Force,” Zurich-based retirement consultant Ron Holland makes an excellent case for having the U.S. federal government and the European Union follow the Swiss model, as opposed to “the failed top down examples of other nations and empires.” Even members of the European Parliament have made similar assertions.

Across the Middle East, from Egypt to Libya, Bahrain to Yemen, Tunisia to Algeria and beyond, oppressed populations are seemingly rising up spontaneously in an effort to sweep tyrants out of power. In some places, they have succeeded — at least partially — in ousting autocratic regimes that have violently clung to their exalted positions for decades. And analysts are predicting that more revolutions could be coming soon, perhaps even in relatively stable theocratic dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and Iran.

At first glance, the trend seems like something to rejoice about. After all, who doesn’t like to see humiliated and fearful despots fleeing their former slaves? Or better yet, tried in a court of law for their numerous crimes? Torture, disappearances, murder, brutal suppression of opposition movements, big-government economic policies that resulted in starvation and grinding poverty — the list of human-rights abuses across the region is simply enormous. It’s probably difficult for most Westerners to understand the atrocities inflicted upon Middle Easterners in recent decades by their governments.