Is there a democratic deficit in the EU and if so, how might it be reduced?
One of the most controversial debates in the history of European Union (EU) is if there is a democratic deficit in the EU. On the one hand, many scholars argued that the democratic deficit exists in the EU. On the other hand, there are other scholars who claimed that there is not a democratic deficit in the EU. In this essay, the writer will support the argument that the democratic deficit in the EU exists and will propose how this deficit can be reduced. In the first part of this paper the arguments, which support the existence of the democratic deficit, will be discussed. After that, this essay will present the claims that there is no democratic deficit in the EU. Finally, as the argument of this essay is that there is a democratic deficit in the EU, is to present some ways, which can reduce the democratic deficit in the EU.
Defining democracy
Before we examine if there is a democratic deficit in the EU it is important to present what is democracy. The word democracy came from the Greek word dimokratia, which came from the words demos-people and kratos-governments Generally, democracy is when people can audit or influence on government’s policy-making (Coultrap 1999). According to Lord (2008:316), democracy has five requirements. Firstly, “citizens should be able to understand themselves as authoring their own laws through representatives”, because only then citizens self-govern themselves. Secondly, as saw above, citizens should control governments. Thirdly, democracy requires equality and mainly political equality, which means voting equality and voice equality. Fourthly, “democracy entails a right of justification”.
Nowadays, the most “famous” mod...
... middle of paper ...
...re “open” than the most national parliaments from members-states. This happens because citizens have easy access via EU web site in the archives of the EU policy-making.
Finally, in the fifth claim about policy drift Moravcsik highlights that the decision in the EU is to centrist and both left wing parties and right wing parties are skeptics about EU policies. This happens because of “there are high threshold for the adoption of EU policies: unanimity in the Council, or a majority in the Commission plus a qualified majority in the Council plus an absolute majority in the European Parliament and then judicial review by national courts and the European Court of Justice” (Hix & Follesdal 2006:540).
As a conclusion on Majone and Moravcsik arguments, it is important to discuss if they are right in theirs claims about the democratic deficit in the EU or not.
Firstly,
Evaluate the extent to which there is a democratic deficit in the UK (30) The UK political system is one that has lasted for many hundreds of years. Though it has remained reasonably stable throughout this time, there have been many problems with UK politics. A democratic deficit is defined as any situation in which there is believed to be a lack of democratic accountability and control over the decision-making process. Many would argue that the UK suffers from a democratic deficit.
There are a number of various ways that can be used in order to address the ever-growing problem of democratic deficit in the UK, which is based around factors such as the low participation rates and general apathy towards politics in the wider public.
The Canadian constitution is bereft of democratic legitimacy; an alluring term for political democratic deficit. Over the past years, the unsuccessful attempts to reform its laws have made passing new bills and regulations almost an unreachable goal for every newly elected prime minister. This inflexibility in adapting new laws made the fundamental principles of the Canadian constitution knew only few reforms. The lack of democratic accountability in the Canadian parliamentary democracy is demonstrated not only in its electoral system, but also in its national parliament and at the federal level of its politics. Many reforms must be addressed in order to make the Canadian democracy healthier.
Witte, Mark Dawson and Floris de. "Constitutional Balance in the EU after the Euro-Crisis." The Modern Law Review (2013): 817-844. Academic Search Complete.
However, it is important to realize that in the absence of a codified constitution, there is no formal separation of powers. The functions of legislature and executive are inter-related and ministers are members of both. Overlaps do occur, which can question its effectiveness in protecting the rule of law. Unlike US, in the UK, the PM is always the leader of the leading party, which makes scrutiny much harder and makes the likelihood of exploitation of powers more likely. Parliament is always a supreme legislating body, and British judges have no power to question the validity of the Acts of Parliament. The impact of the EU, especially in protecting the basic human rights due to the absence of the UK’s equivalent, and in this sense, the separation of powers doesn’t play a crucial role in upholding the rule of law subject to the interests of minorities.
A Democratic Deficit in the EU The question over the legitimacy of the EU has been a nearly continuous debate and many commentators appear to agree that the EU suffers from a severe ‘democratic deficit’. There are many reasons why this perception is so widespread. As a multinational body it lacks the grounding in common history and culture upon which most individual polities can draw.
For example, in the 2010 general election, none of the major parties included anything about membership to the EU in their manifesto so there was no way to vote which expressed a view on this topic. This compromises democratic legitimacy because people cannot have their say on important issues, so these issues are not decided by the people but by politicians. However, if referendums were held on topics such as these, the decision made would definitely be
Vesnic-Alujevic, L. and Nacarino, R. C. 2012. The EU and its democratic deficit: problems and (possible) solutions. European View, 11 (1), pp. 63--70.
Vesnic-Alujevic & Nacarino, 2012. The EU and its democratic deficit: problems and (possible) solutions. European View, Vol. 11, pp. 63–70. [Online]
The EU is a union of sovereign European states who share sovereignty based on treaty. The union also possesses competences in policy sectors with exclusive jurisdiction in the area of Economic and Monetary Union while others are shared with Member States (MS), the other powers belong to MS as derived from the conferral of powers art 5(2) TEU, 2(1) TFEU art.3 & 4 TFEU additionally other powers have been offered by the decisions of the European Court for direct effect on citizens
Debating which constitutional form of government best serves democratic nations is discussed by political scientist Juan Linz in his essay “The Perils of Presidentialism”. Linz compares parliamentary systems with presidential systems as they govern democracies. As the title of Linz’s essay implies, he sees Presidentialism as potentially dangerous. Linz points out the flaws as presidentialism as he sees them and sites rigidity of fixed terms, the zero-sum game and political legitimacy coupled with lack of incentive to form alliances as issues to support his theory that the parliamentary system is superior to presidentialism.
Democracy: a government by the people, in which citizens rule either directly or through elected representatives - the latter description more relevant to today’s societies. Quite evidently, democracy is not perfect; like any other political system, it is subject to a plethora of flaws. For instance, it is no secret that voters tend to make illogical decisions – not out of sheer malice, but as a result of being wrongly informed. Politicians also make erroneous choices, whether they do so because they are dishonest or simply out of touch with the true will of their constituents. Further, anyone who has studied the government of a parliamentary democracy knows gerrymandering can have a powerful say in determining elections. Despite these and other flaws however, democracy still seems to work.
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
The European Union stands on the threshold of unparalleled change over the coming years. The next waves of enlargement will be unprecedented in nature and continental in scale. This process has gained so much political momentum that it is now irreversible.
Throughout history different types of instrumental regimes have been in tact so civilizations remained structured and cohesive. As humanity advanced, governments obligingly followed. Although there have been hiccups from the ancient times to modern day, one type of government, democracy, has proven to be the most effective and adaptive. As quoted by Winston Churchill, democracy is the best form of government that has existed. This is true because the heart of democracy is reliant, dependent, and thrives on the populaces desires; which gives them the ability for maintaining the right to choose, over time it adjusts and fixes itself to engulf the prominent troubling issues, and people have the right of electing the person they deem appropriate and can denounce them once they no longer appease them. In this paper, the benefits of democracy are outlined, compared to autocratic communism, and finally the flaws of democracy are illustrated.