European democracy and its critique

TLDR

The debate examines European peoplehood and governance, framing the Union as operating through international, supranational, and infranational forms. The authors aim to broaden the EU democratic deficit thesis by proposing a differentiated democratic discourse that reflects multiple governance forms and emphasizes Union competences as power disaggregation. They achieve this by outlining four directions for a differentiated discourse, applying it to various democracy models and to Union competences to inform European governance.

Abstract

After presenting a ‘standard version’ of the European Union's democratic deficit thesis, the European democratisation debate is broadened in four directions. First, the issue of demos and the political boundaries of the Union is considered, presenting competing notions of European peoplehood. Then European governance is presented as taking one of three forms: international, supranational and/or infranational. A differentiated democratic discourse is proposed to reflect the multiple‐form governance of the Union. The notion of democracy itself is then subjected to the same differentiated approach with a brief examination of various models of democracy and of the insight they can offer to European governance. Finally, the issue of Union competences ‐ as a form of disaggregating power ‐ is introduced as an important element in the democratisation debate.