EU's Democratic Deficit Research Articles

A window of opportunity? The relevance of the rotating European Union presidency in the public eye.

The rotating EU presidency's relevance for EU politics has decreased since the introduction of a permanent council president. However, news salience and framing of the own government acting as the EU presidency can amplify publicity for EU affairs. We, therefore, evaluate the visibility and framing of the EU presidency in 12 Austrian newspapers for 2009-2019. We conduct an automated text analysis of 22 presidencies over 11 years, testing several hypotheses statistically, and qualify results via manually coded frames of the Austrian EU presidency in 2018. The results confirm the crucial importance of the domestication of EU politics, underscoring the potential of the presidency to serve as a window of opportunity for public debate. We discuss our findings with reference to the EU's democratic deficit.

Drafting national recovery plans and stakeholder involvement: an opportunity for strengthening EU legitimacy?

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is at the heart of Next Generation EU, Europe’s plan to tackle the economic fallout of the pandemic crisis. To obtain this support, national plans outlining structural reforms to be implemented by member states are to be submitted for assessment by the European Commission before being approved by the European Council. Accordingly, to effectively implement the structural reforms to be financed by the RRF, national governments and their constituents must show ownership over the process. While it should be in everyone’s interest to disburse recovery funds as soon as possible so as to reach a strong recovery effect, it is equally important to ensure enough time for public consultations with the relevant stakeholders and a successful reflection of input from the stakeholders in the national plans. However, drafting national recovery plans proved a laborious exercise, bringing back concerns over the EU democratic deficit. Consequently, a crucial question concerns whether the pandemic crisis is a proper opportunity to bridge the legitimacy gap of the EU, which has widened in the era of the EU’s economic crisis. In an attempt to answer this question, this paper provides an overview of the overall involvement of stakeholders in drafting national recovery and resilience plans based on information gathered from several official reports.

The ties that unbind: intergovernmental decision rules and the policy-opinion link

ABSTRACT Whether territorial (intergovernmental) decision rules adversely impact the policy-opinion link is a controversial topic, and unresolved in part due to a lack of empirical evidence. This study leverages the European Union's (EU) codecision reform – introduced to tackle the EU's democratic deficit – to evaluate whether it caused EU policies to better track public opinion (mood).. The analysis links an original dataset of ideologically scaled EU policies with existing datasets on European public opinion (1990–2008) and applies the difference-in-differences (DiD) causal inference design. The study finds that EU policies adopted under codecision more closely track European public opinion shifts. The finding supports the argument that territorial legislative procedures can hurt the democratic legitimacy of public policies. This has significant implications for the reform of the EU and of global governance, and contributes to the broader field of political representation and the debate on territorial representation.

From an Ordoliberal idea to a Social‐Democratic ideal? The European Parliament and the institutionalization of ‘social market economy’ in the European Union (1957‐2007)

AbstractThis paper explores how ‘social market economy’ became a quasi‐constitutional principle of the EU, highlighting the crucial role played in this process by the European Parliament. Based on multiple archival sources, we show that social market economy came to function as a limited repertoire: While it was advocated for various reasons by different actors, increasingly including social‐democrats, it nevertheless also solidified certain ways of conceiving the EU and its economic model. So doing, this article not only illuminates the role of the EP in the definition of a constitutionalized economic model for the EU; it also challenges the view of Europeanization as the progressive convergence around national preexisting models. Finally, two paradoxes emerge from the analysis: while supporters of the discourse of social market economy aimed at promoting the European social dimension and at addressing the EU democratic deficit, the adoption of this principle may have actually contributed to the subordination of both the ‘social’ and the ‘political’ to the ‘economic’.

Covid-19: A Different Economic Crisis but the Same Paradigm of Democratic Deficit in the EU

Based on a normative orientation and an interdisciplinary perspective, this is a comparative study, using the process tracing methodology, between the EU responses to Eurozone and Covid-19 crises to assess if, despite different outcomes, institutional decision-making processes evidence a change. The study concluded that the EU democratic deficit remains, which assumes special features in economic crises, providing a political oversize power to the economically hegemonic states, thus constraining ideological debate and making national interest prevail over politicisation. This perpetuates the conversion of structural economic positions into political power at the expense of political representative power and democracy.

Technocracy, Trust and Democracy: Evidence on Citizens’ Attitudes from a Natural Experiment in Italy

AbstractDuring the eurozone crisis, technocratic governments were appointed in several eurozone countries, becoming in the eyes of many the embodiment of the EU's democratic deficit. In spite of the central place that these technocratic governments occupy in the scholarly debate, however, we have remarkably little evidence on Europeans’ attitudes towards technocracy, and technocratic governments are under-studied from an empirical standpoint. We contribute to the very limited empirical literature on this topic by using a novel natural experiment design, in the context of the 2011 Italian crisis that led to the appointment of the Monti technocratic cabinet. We hypothesize that the effect of technocratic appointments on citizens’ satisfaction with democracy is a priori uncertain, and it depends on the balance of a trade-off between reduced input participation and increased output effectiveness. Overall, the results point to citizens’ attitudes towards technocracy being more complex than often assumed in the debate.

Brexit and EU Legitimation: Unwitting Martyr for the Cause?

Drawing upon emerging trends across Europe, this essay argues that the painful learning Britain undergoes via Brexit, looks set to become a useful lesson for the rest of the EU. Not unlike how Europe's bloody past once served as shorthand for justifying the EU's existence, should Brexit continue to humiliate Britain and result in recession, it will provide a new and powerful symbolic resource capable of legitimating membership and making up for the EU's democratic deficit. As such, Britain looks set to become an unwitting martyr for the EU cause. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom then, a no-deal Brexit may be the optimum outcome for the EU because it would best illuminate the folly of leaving and therefore publicly crystalize the benefits of membership.

Legislative Control over Executive Law‐making: Delegation of Quasi‐legislative Powers to the European Commission

AbstractMost EU legislation consists of executive acts of the European Commission. The Lisbon Treaty introduced a new type of EU executive legislation – delegated acts, which give the European Parliament formal powers of legislative scrutiny equal to those of the EU Council. Thus, the use of delegated acts could reinforce the institutional balance of power and help reduce the EU's democratic deficit. We studied the situations when the Parliament and the Council agreed to grant the Commission the right to adopt delegated acts, considering the preference constellations of legislative and executive actors and legislative complexity. Using a novel dataset on post‐Lisbon legislation, we found that delegated acts are more likely in cases of high legislative complexity and when the Council sees the Parliament as an ally vis‐à‐vis the Commission. However, the European Parliament gets no say over executive measures when doing so could shift policy outcomes away from the Council's preferences, raising doubts about the effectiveness of parliamentary control.

New Commission’s Guidelines on Stakeholder Consultation as a factor reducing the EU democratic deficit

The objective of the article is to assess the new Commission’s Guidelines on Stakeholder Consultation (2015) in the EU policy-shaping in view of raising effectiveness of the EU governance model and of reducing the EU democratic deficit. The hypothesis of the article is that the Commission’s revision of the stakeholder consultation procedures contributes to overcoming the EU crisis of the consultation model and, in general, to reducing the democratic deficit in the EU. The neoinstitutional research perspective permits to catch the relations between the EU institutions and stakeholders wanting to co-shape EU sectoral policies, and the concepts of the UE democratic legitimacy (by F. Scharpf) as well as of the deliberative democracy (by J. Habermas) make possible to verify the research hypothesis. The verification takes place also in the course of the analysis of the new guidelines by confronting them with the identified deficits in matters of the dialogue with stakeholders.

Progress, democracy, efficiency: normative narratives in political science EU studies

ABSTRACTThis article identifies influential political narratives in the 73 currently most highly cited political science articles on the EU. It is based on systematic analysis of expressions of normativity, which signal that European integration, or its institutions or policies, are bad, good, flourishing or declining. A normative narrative of continuous progress in integration, connected with a 1990s grand theoretical debate in EU studies, accounts for much of the positive tone of EU studies until about 1998. Narratives about the EU's democratic deficit and its impact beyond its borders help explain the subsequent negative turn in EU studies normativity.

Signs of Europeanization?: the 2014 EP election in European newspapers

Taking into account the European public sphere and the EU democratic deficit theories, and utilizing the European elections as an evidence, this article demonstrates that despite appearances the European public sphere is showing signs of Europeanization. In the last European electoral campaign, the electorate has gained a more direct voice in the selection of the President of the European Commission. For the first time, EP parties (or party groups) have selected candidates for this position, hence structuring the electoral campaign and giving visibility to such candidates, as suggested by the European Parliament resolution document issued on 4 July 2013. Through political communication approaches, the article explores the impact these guidelines had in the domestic electoral strategies. It does so drawing on a comparative perspective approach. Descriptive content analysis tools are utilized to examine the online edition of articles related to the European election campaign in five European newspapers: The Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais, La Stampa, and Süddeutche Zeitung. The research focused on (i) coverage of European campaign, (ii) main issues and topics of the electoral debate, (iii) visibility of European and national leaders, and (iv) impact of Eurosceptic perspective in the European election debate. Special attention is given to comparing the different journalistic approaches about gender balance and Euroscepticism. The results of this comparative analysis show a strengthening of the Europeanization of the public sphere.

Does Banking Union Worsen the EU's Democratic Deficit? The Need for Greater Supervisory Data Transparency

Does Banking Union Worsen the EU's Democratic Deficit? The Need for Greater Supervisory Data Transparency

The EU's Democratic Deficit and the Public Sphere

The EU will not become something like a traditional nation-state anytime soon, and no supranational public sphere is likely to ever replace national public spheres.

Democratic Deficit in the European Union and Lisbon Treaty

The system of democracy is not only important for any country rather it is also important for any organisation. However, within the European Union there is an argument that whether as an organisation it is sufficiently democratic or not. Some argues that it is one of the most important problem for the current weakness of the European Union. It has always been described as opaque and distant from its citizen. There is also a lack of accountability on the parts of EU institution towards its citizens. The lack of democratic deficit is considered as a crisis of legitimacy. Although some argues that Lisbon Treaty has resolved some of the expressed concerns regarding the democratic deficit in the EU but still there is a question that whether these changes are sufficient to eliminate the EU democratic deficit. This paper will endeavour to localise democratic deficit in the E.U and to examine whether Lisbon Treaty have managed to Cured this problem.

AVRUPA BİRLİĞİ VE DEMOKRASİ: HALK GÖRÜŞLERİ ANALİZLERİ

Democracy, which is considered as the most advanced form of governance, is conceived as a harmonisation effort in reconciling of unity and diversity, freedom and solidarity in administration. Democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights have been designated as primary aims of European integration from the very beginning. To be a European state and to be a democratic state are the two main conditions of membership since the early days of the integration. The Union, established by states considered as most advanced with respect to democratic administration, has nevertheless started to be questioned due to the lack of democracy. Eurobarometer investigations of the Commission serve to eliminate this deficit and to bring the EU closer to its aim of making decisions in harmony with the choices of EU citizens. Steps towards a democratic Europe, better harmonised and united, can only be successful with the approval and confidence of EU citizens. Although there are economic and social criticisms, European citizens still have a positive image about the EU. This study analyses the public opinion on EU's democracy. Keywords: Democracy, EU Democratic deficit, European citizenship, Public opinion

The Way We Do Europe: Subsidiarity and the Substantive Democratic Deficit

AbstractThe new institutional framework of subsidiarity is expected to lower the EU democratic deficit. In contrast to this optimistic scenario, I argue that the success of subsidiarity depends on its capacity to unravel the EU's ‘substantive’ democratic deficit. Linked to the Union's functionalist institutional design, this dimension of the democratic deficit has developed due to two limitations of EU‐level politics. First, the EU functionalist design has narrowed the range of topics open to democratic debate (horizontal substantive democratic deficit). Second, the proportion of the debate which we could genuinely describe as being political is declining as a result of the de‐politicisation of EU goals, underpinned by a massive accumulation of allegedly apolitical expert knowledge (vertical substantive democratic deficit). Against this background, I contend that by involving actors relatively alien to the EU functionalist thinking, subsidiarity could offer an opportune ground for the re‐politicisation of democratic ‘blind spots’ in EU policy making.

Citizenss Deliberations and the EU Democratic Deficit: Is There a Model for Participatory Democracy?

There is a longstanding debate on the EU’s democratic deficit. Recently, the EU has responded to this by including the idea of participatory democracy in the Lisbon treaty. This corresponds to first experiments with means for citizens’ participation that are rooted in the idea of participatory and deliberative democracy and supported by the EU Commission. In contrast to interest group politics, these attempts aim at including ‘normal’, i.e. non-interested and unorganized citizens into policy-making. Examples of such ‘democratic experimentalism’ are the citizens’ deliberation ‘Meeting of Minds’ or the European Citizens’ Consultations on Europe’s future. The objective of the paper is to discuss these models and their specific problems against the background of the general democratic deficit debate. The key questions are: Are these examples ‘best practices’? What are their effects? And what can we learn from them for the possibilities of participatory governance in the EU?

Experimentalist governance in the EU: The emperor's new clothes?

AbstractMost students of the EU agree by now that it is best described as a governance system. There is far less consensus on what kind of governance the EU actually features: modern, postmodern, network, cooperative, innovative or simply new? Sabel and Zeitlin have advanced yet another concept. This paper discusses the added value of their “experimentalist governance” (EG), as presented in an edited volume published in 2010, for understanding and explaining the nature of EU policymaking, addressing four questions: First, to what extent is EG distinct from existing concepts of governance? Second, how pervasive is EG in the EU when compared to alternative forms of governance? Third, what is the effect of EG on EU policy outcomes, on the one hand, and the overall architecture of the EU, on the other? Finally, does EG solve or exacerbate the EU's democratic deficit?

The Future of Higher Education in Europe: The Case for a Stronger Base in EU Law

Under the budgetary strain of the economic crisis, many European governments have introduced spending cuts in higher education. As a consequence, universities increasingly have to rely on tuition fees and private sources of funding to sustain themselves. This development fits in with a broader tendency of treating higher education increasingly as an economic resource and commodity, which is fostered by European-level processes such as most notably the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy. Considering the fundamental importance of these issues, touching upon the core of our views on what an equitable and egalitarian society entails, it is imperative that the decisions that are being taken are democratically legitimate and that the policy makers are accountable for the measures they enact. Therefore, it is worrying that many of the most crucial and influential decisions are taken in intergovernmental contexts and implemented by means of soft law - of which the democratic legitimacy is doubtful. The Bologna Process is an intergovernmental policy forum, participation in which is voluntary and whose decisions are non-binding, suffering from all the accountability defects inherent in international policy making - magnified by its soft law character. The Lisbon/Europe 2020 Strategy does take place within the EU's institutional framework, but is an area where the EU's democratic deficit is particularly worrisome. Therefore, as this contribution shall argue, we need to consider a stronger and more democratic basis for these important policies, if we decide to pursue them. That basis is to be found in EU law.

Disproving the Necessity of the Use of the Concept of Demos as an Element for Defining Democratic Deficit in EU and for the Efficiency of Functioning of the EU, In General

The theory differs from the practice and the practice of the functioning of the EU has proven that this political entity is perfectly capable to organize systematically its competencies, bringing the question of existing demos, in classical terms, as a prerequisite for buffering the EU democratic deficit and the vast literature and debates on the topic, to a level of small-impact relevance. In the following essay, the relevance of demos will be presented, both as a constitutional element of the EU’s democratic deficit and its mutual influence with the European dynamism.