Democratic legitimacy of the European Union (EU). Actors, legal-institutional structures and processes

Democratic legitimacy of the European Union (EU). Actors, legal-institutional structures and processes
Author: Ibrahim Bekmezci
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 27
Release: 2022-03-16
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3346606082

Essay from the year 2022 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, , language: English, abstract: The main questions of this study are: What is the EU actually, how does the EU system work at all and which goals and values is the EU pursuing? How is the EU institutionally structured and who are the main actors in the EU? How does the EU make decisions, how does it act and how is the EU democratic? Corona, the rule of law, migration, the economy, relations with the USA and China: The European Union (EU), which is far from always being united itself, faces a multitude of challenges. The EU is often criticized in the system of international relations for showing a “democratic deficit”. In this essay, the foundations, institutions, and procedures of the EU system are discussed with a view to the central question of whether this criticism is correct and whether there are ways to give it democratic legitimacy or to increase it. In view of the initial questions, the fundamentals, central institutions, and procedures of the EU are discussed within the scope of the present study to better understand the complex relationships and the controversial position. This makes it possible to find answers to important problem areas about the democratic legitimacy of the EU. The aim is to make an objective and scientific as possible contribution to the debate on the “EU Project” whose finality is unknown.

Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union

Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union
Author: Beate Kohler-Koch
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2007-04-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 074257640X

The discussion about a constitution for the European Union and its rejection by referendum in two of the EU founding member states has once again spurred public and scholarly interest in the democratic quality and potential of the European Union. Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union brings together distinguished thinkers from law, political science, sociology, and political philosophy to explore the potential for democratically legitimate governance in the European Union. Drawing on different theoretical perspectives and strands from democratic theory, this volume is the first of its kind to overcome the present state of fragmentation in the debate about the conditions and possible remedies for what is often called the "democratic deficit" of the European Union. Among the pressing questions addressed by the contributors are: What future is there for parliamentary democracy in the European Union? Can we observe the evolution of a European public sphere and civil society? Can participatory democracy or deliberative democracy pave the road for a democratically legitimate European Union? Conversations about democracy have engaged the public in a new way since the beginning of the Iraq war, and this volume is the best resource for students and readers who are interested in democracy in the European Union. Contributions by: Rudy B. Andeweg, Katrin Auel, Arthur Benz, Lars-Erik Cederman, Damian Chalmers, Deirdre Curtin, Donatella Della Porta, Klaus Eder, Erik O. Eriksen, Ulrich Haltern, Hubert Heinelt, Doug Imig, Christian Joerges, Beate Kohler-Koch, Christopher Lord, Paul Magnette, Andreas Maurer, Jeremy Richardson, Berthold Rittberger, Rainer Schmalz-Bruns, Michael Th. Greven, Hans-Jörg Trenz, and Armin von Bogdandy

Democratic Legitimacy in the European Union and Global Governance

Democratic Legitimacy in the European Union and Global Governance
Author: Beatriz Pérez de las Heras
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2016-12-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319413813

This book addresses one of the most relevant challenges to the sustainability of the European Union (EU) as a political project: the deficit of citizens’ support. It identifies missing elements of popular legitimacy and makes proposals for their formal inclusion in a future Treaty reform, while assessing the contribution that the EU may make to global governance by expanding a credible democratic model to other international actors. The contributors offer perspectives from law, political science, and sociology, and the 15 case studies of different aspects of the incipient European demos provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of these pertinent questions. The edited volume provides a truly interdisciplinary study of the citizens’ role in the European political landscape that can serve as a basis for further analyses of the EU’s democratic legitimacy. It will be of use to legal scholars and political scientists interested in the EU’s democratic system, institutional setup and external relations.

Democracy in the European Union

Democracy in the European Union
Author: Alex Warleigh
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2003-04-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780761972815

This book comprehensively reviews one of the most salient, ongoing debates at the heart of the European Union (EU) today: democratic reform.

The Europeanisation of Parliamentary Democracy

The Europeanisation of Parliamentary Democracy
Author: Arthur Benz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-02-29
Genre:
ISBN: 9781138969124

This groundbreaking new study shows how the process of creating an ever closer European Union affects not only the policy-making, but also the politics and polity of the Member States. Empirical studies on the domestic impact of Europe identified different forms of Europeanization due to alternative mechanisms of internalising the new norms and rules. Although many studies have since focused on the question of how, to what degree, in what direction, at what pace, and at what point of time "Europe matters," the Europeanization of one particular structural determinant of the Member States, namely the system of parliamentary democracy, is still under-researched. This is all the more astonishing as democracy in the EU depends to a large extent on the democratic legitimacy of procedures at the national level. This volume addresses the key issue of the Europeanisation of parliamentary systems and thus contributes to the ongoing debate on the parliamentary dimension of the European Union. It brings together theoretical concepts as well as cross-national empirical research on the Europeanization of the member states parliamentary systems, focussing on different elements such as structures, procedures and decision-making processes as well as on the question how parliamentarians as actors react to these changes and actively shape this Europeanization. This book was previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies."

Democratic Governance and European Integration

Democratic Governance and European Integration
Author: Ronald Holzhacker
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

As the power and scope of the European Union moves further, beyond traditional forms of international cooperation between sovereign states, it is important to analyse how these developments are impacting upon national institutions and processes of democratic representation and legitimacy in the member countries. The authors in this book identify four core processes of democratic governance present in any democratic political system that link societal and state processes of decision-making: opinion formation, interest intermediation, national executive decision-making and national parliamentary scrutiny. From a normative perspective they discuss what impacts this process of Europeanization has on democracy in the evolving system. They conclude that more changes are seen within the state-centric than in the societal-centred processes of democracy, thus the public seems to have been 'left behind' in the process of constructing Europe. The empirical research and normative discussion presented in this book are designed to further our knowledge concerning the Europeanization of social and state processes of democracy and to contribute to the continuing dialogue on democracy in the European Union. This book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of political science, public policy and international relations, as well as those interested in European studies and comparative politics.

Europe in Search of Political Order:An Institutional Perspective on Unity/Diversity, Citizens/their Helpers, Democratic Design/Historical Drift, and the Co-Existence of Orders

Europe in Search of Political Order:An Institutional Perspective on Unity/Diversity, Citizens/their Helpers, Democratic Design/Historical Drift, and the Co-Existence of Orders
Author: Johan P. Olsen
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2007-02-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199214344

This book deals with ongoing processes of European cooperation and integration, processes that may have a potential to change the political organization of Europe. Based on ideas from 'the new institutionalism' the book offers a systematic perspective on institutional change and in particular the role of institutions in relation to four central and durable issues in the study of political life. These are: (1) the mediation between unity and diversity: what ties a society togetherand what keeps it apart. (2) The relations between citizens and their helpers: why the democratic deficit in the European Union can not be eliminated solely by making mechanisms of direct citizens participation and representation more efficient. Needed are also institutions that make directparticipation redundant because they routinely work with integrity, generating expected and desired outcomes. (3) The relation between democratic design and historical drift: To what degree democracies are able to design and reform key institutions of governance so that their structures reflect popular will, understanding and control. (4) The co-existence of old and new political orders: How elements of a new order may supplement rather than replace elements of the old order, generating a'mixed order' based on partly inconsistent principles and rules.

Democracy in the European Union

Democracy in the European Union
Author: Erik Oddvar Eriksen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2002-09-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 113458993X

The European Union is widely held to suffer from a democratic deficit, and this raises a wider question: can democracy at all be applied to decision-making bodies beyond the nation state? Today, the EU is a highly complex entity undergoing profound changes. This book asks how the type of cooperation that the EU is based on can be explained; what are the integrative forces in the EU and how can integration at a supra-national level come about? The key thinkers represented in this volume stress that in order to understand integration beyond the nation state, we need new explanatory categories associated with deliberation because a supranational entity as the EU posesses far weaker and less well-developed means of coercion - bargaining resources - than do states. The most appropriate term to denote this is the notion of 'deliberative supranationalism'. This pioneering work, headed by major writers such as Habermas, Schlesinger and Bellamy, brings a new perspective to this key issue in contemporary politics and political theory.

Democracy in the EU After the Lisbon Treaty

Democracy in the EU After the Lisbon Treaty
Author: Raffaello Matarazzo
Publisher: Nuova Cultura
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2011
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9788861347168

The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, on December 1 2009, brought the EU's troubled institutional reform process to an end. In an effort to increase the EU's democratic legitimacy, the Treaty introduces some relevant innovations: it extends the powers of the European Parliament, it enhances the role of European political parties, it involves national parliaments increasingly in the EU legislative process and, finally, it creates the European Citizens' Initiative, which allows citizens to invite the Commission to submit legislative proposals that they feel are of crucial importance. Nevertheless, the implementation of these provisions will not be easy as they impact on, among other things, the EU's institutional balance. Not only does it remain to be seen how effective they will be in bringing EU institutions closer to citizens, but the application of some of these provisions could lead to inter-institutional conflicts and political ambiguities. In this context, the European Parliament has a key role to play as a political and institutional facilitator, also in promoting more consistent linkages between citizens and the EU institutional system.