...Who is without sin cast the first stone: the EU's democratic deficit in comparison

Abstract

The renaissance of the EU and the introduction of the Euro have renewed concerns whether EU institutions are sufficiently accountable to the European electorate. Critics assert that the EU suffers from a 'democratic deficit.' But many democratic deficit arguments have a shortcoming: seeing the EU as sui generis , they treat it in a vacuum and fail to compare it to other polities. This study aims to systematically compare the European regulatory state with two federal democracies, Switzerland and the US, along seven established scales of democracy. The finding might surprise EU critics: On the whole, EU institutions compare favorably with those of the 'model democracies' the US and Switzerland. While there is much room for improvement, the EU does not suffer from a democratic deficit greater than that of the world's most liberal democracies.