France votes on Sunday to ratify the European Union Constitution - or not.

I haven't noticed a French presence in our forum, so I invite the participation of our French and French speaking members.

From what little I know of the situation, the European Union Constitution is well over 400 pages long, a citizen's nightmare and a bureaucrat's joy. By contrast, the United States Constitution, with Bill of Rights, is only a few pages long (and you can get a free download of it for your iPOD), is readily comprehensible to the average citizen, and can be memorized much more easily than your average Qu'ran.

This is indicative of the different history and mode of thinking between Americans and Europeans.

For the very young United States, the Constitution was to be used as a political as well as formative document. The United States had existed for 13 years already under the Articles of Confederation, but was experiencing disunity and disharmony under the system. Installing a more powerful central government was a huge risk, and perceived as such. "The Federalist Papers" give insight into the thought process of The Framers. In order to promote the document, it was made readily comprehensible to the average literate person, and put to debate and explanation.

By contrast, the European Union comes to unity after 'having tried everything else' in particular, World Wars 1 and 2. The contrast of the model of the United States as a way to keep a huge land mass in order has not been lost on Europe, but getting large cultural diverse natioins to cooperate is a monumental task

Perhaps bureaucracy is the only feasible way to do it. Nevertheless the average French Citizen is unlikely to feel particularly positive in approving a document that reads like a tax code.

I believe Great Britian has been sitting this one out. But isn't it perceived as inevitable? And isn't it better than the past centuries of strife?

Oui ou Non?