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Democratic Deficit. Lecture: April 6, 2006. Democracy. Δημοκρατία. δημος = deimos = the people. κρατία = kratia = the rule. The three basic aspects of the EU democratic deficit. The relation between …. 1. … the European People and the EU Institutions.
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Democratic Deficit Lecture: April 6, 2006
Democracy Δημοκρατία δημος = deimos = the people κρατία = kratia = the rule
The three basic aspects of the EU democratic deficit The relation between … 1. … the European People and the EU Institutions 2. … the Member States and the EU Institutions 3. … the European Parliament and the other EU Institutions
The “Standard Version” of the critique of democracy in Europe (Weiler et. al.) 1. Increase in executive power and decrease in national parliamentary control • The European Parliament is too weak 3. The European Parliament is too remote
4. No real “European” elections 5. Weakening of diffuse and fragmented national interest groups 6. Anti-majoritarian policy drift 7. Overall lack of transparancy
Democracy without a demos? Weiler et al: demos is the basis for a democratic polity EU lacks authority and legitimacy of a democratic state Solution Emergence of a European demos Cooperation through international treaties
Inverted regionalism 1.Transfer of government functions from the members states to the EU 2.Micromanagement 3.No effective limit to the extension of competences = overall weakening of national parliaments as “public forums”
The DefenceMoravcsik & Majone little evidence that the EU suffers from a fundamental democratic deficit Critique results from privileging the abstract over the concrete (issue of standards) EU decision making procedures are very much in line with general practice of most modern democracies
1. EU decision-making processes are dominated by national governments They are the most directly accountable politicians in Europe 2. Significant increase of the powers of the European Parliament veto-power over selection of commission Legislation under the co-decision procedure must be approved by the European parliament
3. EU policy-making process is more transparent than most domestic systems easy access to policy related documents (i.e. white and green papers) Extensive participation and consultation of the public prior to legislative actions Extensive judicial review by ECJ and National Courts
4. Re: “European” elections EU policy topics not salient enough for voters to take interest EU policy making is and should be largely insolated from majoritarian contests “… the EU may be more ‘representative’ precisely because it is, in a narrow sense, less ’democratic’” Moravcsik
5. The treaties ensure consensus based decision-making 6. The Union promotes the access of diffuse interests to the legislative process 7. The EU is regulatory in nature rather than redistributive Discussed Problems are rather problems of credibility than of democratic deficit (Majone)
