Chapter 22 Democracy and the European Union

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Chapter 22Democracy and the European Union

• Cini (ed.) European Union Politics, 2nd edition
• OUP Online Teaching Resources

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Structure of the Lecture

• Understanding the Democratic Deficit
• Five Models of European Democracy
• Democracy and Treaty Reform

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Understanding the Democratic Deficit

• The ratification crisis in the early 1990s and
  the broken-down of permissive consensus
• Interpreting the democratic deficit
• The institutional imbalance of the EU
• The absence of a European demos

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Understanding the Democratic Deficit

• An institutional perspective
• The problems
• The EP is weak
• QMVs in the Council endanger national interests
• The EU institutions are too remote and secretive

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Understanding the Democratic Deficit

• An institutional perspective
• Proposed solutions
• Strengthen the EP and involving national MPs
• The EU should become more intergovernmental
• The EU institutions be more open and accountable

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Understanding the Democratic Deficit

• A socio-psychological perspective
• The problems
• The lack of civic we-ness, or a common identity
• Proposed solutions
• Many people, one demo

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Five Models of European Democracy

• The parliamentary model
• The confederal model
• The federal model
• The consociation model
• The republican model
• Five models compared
• The EU is a hybrid polity
• Confederal and consociation models are closer
• To invest in the civic dimension of
  polity-building

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Democracy and Treaty Reform

• Treaty reform as an attempt to enhance the
  democratic credential of the EU
• The Amsterdam Treaty
• Prioritise policy effectiveness
• Consolidate the co-decision procedure

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Democracy and Treaty Reform

• The Nice Treaty
• The declaratory Charter of Fundamental Rights
• Institutional reforms for the purpose of
  enlargement
• The Constitutional Treaty
• The work of the Convention
• Inter-state bargains in the IGC