German officials openly told Greek counterparts elections cannot change policy

Evidence

“Elections don’t change anything.” The admission was frank, with a touch of cruelty. Standing in the meeting room of the Brussels’ Lambermont building, the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, listened to his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schaüble, explain how it was practically impossible for his party to ever implement the platform they were elected on. Schaüble was unrepentant about his opponent’s request to restructure the Greek debt. In one sense, Schaüble was right: elections really did matter less and less. Actual power lay elsewhere, outside of Varoufakis’s parliaments, parties, and elected governments—yet where, exactly? — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 124

Categorization

• QUESTION: Where exactly does actual power lie outside parliaments and parties? This is the chapter’s central question.
• XREF: Sharpens the anecdote from the chapter opening about how Schauble dismissed elections—ties to the broader theme of where real sovereignty sits.