The Integration Challenge: Assessing the Impact of EU Powers on National Democracy

It is often alleged that the EU’s decision-making is insufficiently transparent and that accountability deficits are even growing. Critically assess the state of accountability in the EU by taking into account the EU’s alleged democratic deficit.

The democratic deficit of the EU has become a matter of interest for academics who have written on the growing trust deficit between the EU and the State Parties. particularly in the area of politics dissertation help. The functioning of the EU is meant to be democratic but the perceptions of the insufficiently transparent EU and the undemocratic institutions within the EU have grown. This essay critically analyses whether there is a growing democratic deficit in the EU. The principal focus of this essay is the issue of accountability of EU institutions. Accountability here means the relationship between citizens and governance where the former is able to directly or indirectly participate in the decision making of the governance. Accountability is there where institutions are somewhat controlled by the demos or the citizens. This would require the participation of the citizens in the decision making of the EU. This essay argues that there is a growing democratic deficit in the EU, which is the result of the increasing powers of the EU institutions in the integration process and the decreasing powers of the national parliaments in the process.

Democratic deficit has been defined as the relationship between the EU with the Member States and their citizens, which contains either of two political conditions: first, a situation in which the key democratic institutions of the society are not developed; and second, where the institutions are there but they do not function in a democratic manner. In each of these situations, it may be said that the institutions are functioning in a democratic manner if there is transparency and accountability in the systems and the citizens are allowed to participate in the decision making of these institutions. The question is whether the institutions in the EU are functioning democratically or not, which would beg the questions of whether there are democratic institutions in the EU and if these are functioning democratically.

The reasons why there is a question on EU democracy are related to the existence of the normative democracy concepts in the EU and the application of these concepts and the democratic challenges that the EU faces due to its nature as an advanced industrial democracy. Within a democracy, the essential concept of autonomy requires the popular control of political institutions, taking of collective decisions, and public participation. In other words, democratic deficit can be related to a situation where there is an absence of public participation in governance or where the citizenry is not able to influence the government.

Within the EU, there are institutional deficiencies that relate to electoral and party system, and the transfer of national competencies to the supranational European level, which raise the concerns of democratic deficit in the EU. The EU may be able to counter the argument that it suffers from a democratic deficit if it shows how it is placed on some of the conditions that are linked to democratic functioning. Accordingly, the EU may argue that there is no democratic deficit if the citizens of the EU perceive themselves to be self-governing even if this is done through chosen representatives. Secondly, the EU may counter the argument of democratic deficit if it is able to show that the public control is extended to the administration of laws. With respect to these two conditions, it may be stated that there is a democratic deficit in the EU since the integration process that the EU required saw an increase in the powers of the EU institutions and a decrease in the powers of the national parliaments with respect to the law making powers within their own jurisdictions. Reform treaties have been used for the purpose of increasing the powers of the EU institutions since the 1980s; the Lisbon Treaty of 2009 was also a reform treaty. What this has meant for the idea that there is lesser democratic deficit if citizens perceive themselves to be self-governing because laws are made by their chosen representatives, and public control is extended to the administration of laws, is clear. With the increase in the powers of the EU institutions and the decrease in the powers of the national parliaments, people have lost control over law making in the national context as more and more national legislation is guided by the EU law. Because accountability is based on the citizens’ direct or indirect participation in governance, it can be said that EU institutions lack accountability.

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1. Pippa Norris, Democratic deficit: Critical citizens revisited (Cambridge University Press 2011); Gabriele Abels, ‘Citizens ‘Deliberations and the EU Democratic Deficit: Is There a Model for Participatory Democracy?’ (Tübingen 2009).
2. Pippa Norris, Democratic deficit: Critical citizens revisited (Cambridge University Press 2011)
3. Gabriele Abels, ‘Citizens ‘Deliberations and the EU Democratic Deficit: Is There a Model for Participatory Democracy?’ (Tübingen 2009).
4. Ibid
5. Beate Kohler‐Koch and Berthold Rittberger, ‘Charting Crowded Territory: Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union’ in Beate Kohler‐Koch and Berthold Rittberger (eds.), Debating the democratic legitimacy of the European Union (Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield 2007).
6. Ibid
7. Thomas Jensen, ‘The democratic deficit of the European Union’ (2009) Living Reviews in Democracy 1, 2.

Coming back to the conditions that are linked to democratic functioning, the third condition is if there is political equality which can be achieved through equality of vote and voice, it may be argued that the EU does not suffer from a democratic deficit. Fourthly, if those whose voices are overruled at the time of decision making, have the right to seek explanation, then it may be said that there is no democratic deficit. Finally, the existence of demos in the democracy is essential to proving that there is no democratic deficit. In this context, it has been alleged that the EU “suffers from anaemia and is in desperate need for a remedy” because there is no citizen participation in the EU decision making.

The EU is not a nation, rather it is a supranational organisation. It may therefore, be difficult to expect the level of citizen participation in the EU as it can be expected in the states that are a part of it. Nevertheless, the perceptions of an increasing trust and democracy deficit in the EU is manifested in the choices of the British Brexit voters, where democratic deficit emerged as one of the deciding factors for a higher leave vote.

8. Andrew Moravcsik, ‘The myth of Europe's' democratic deficit'’ (2008) 43 (6) Intereconomics 331.
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
11. Andreas Follesdal and Simon Hix, ‘Why there is a democratic deficit in the EU: A response to Majone and Moravcsik’ (2006) 44 (3) JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 533.
12. Ibid
13. Andrew Moravcsik, ‘The myth of Europe's' democratic deficit'’ (2008) 43 (6) Intereconomics 331.
14. Thomas Jensen, ‘The democratic deficit of the European Union’ (2009) Living Reviews in Democracy 1, 2; Pippa Norris, Democratic deficit: Critical citizens revisited (Cambridge University Press 2011); Gabriele Abels, ‘Citizens ‘Deliberations and the EU Democratic Deficit: Is There a Model for Participatory Democracy?’ (Tübingen 2009).
15. Andrew Moravcsik, ‘The myth of Europe's' democratic deficit'’ (2008) 43 (6) Intereconomics 331.
16. Ibid
17. Ibid
18. Gabriele Abels, ‘Citizens ‘Deliberations and the EU Democratic Deficit: Is There a Model for Participatory Democracy?’ (Tübingen 2009) 2.
19. Bob Jessop, ‘The organic crisis of the British state: Putting Brexit in its place’ (2017) 14 (1) Globalizations 133.

To conclude, this essay finds that at this time, there is a democratic deficit which is due to the lack of citizen participation in the EU institutions. The integration process and reform treaties have seen an increase in EU powers due to which the level of participation of the national parliaments has decreased leading to accountability concerns surrounding the EU.

Bibliography

Books

Kohler‐Koch B and Rittberger, B ‘Charting Crowded Territory: Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union’ in Beate Kohler‐Koch and Berthold Rittberger (eds.), Debating the democratic legitimacy of the European Union (Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield 2007).

Norris P, Democratic deficit: Critical citizens revisited (Cambridge University Press 2011).

Journals

Abels G, ‘Citizens ‘Deliberations and the EU Democratic Deficit: Is There a Model for Participatory Democracy?’ (Tübingen 2009).

Follesdal A and Hix S, ‘Why there is a democratic deficit in the EU: A response to Majone and Moravcsik’ (2006) 44 (3) JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 533.

Jensen T, ‘The democratic deficit of the European Union’ (2009) Living Reviews in Democracy 1, 2.

Moravcsik A, ‘The myth of Europe's' democratic deficit'’ (2008) 43 (6) Intereconomics 331.

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