European Democracy, the ‘Permissive Consensus’ and the Collapse of the EU Constitution

Abstract: The draft Constitution was an attempt to democratise the EU, while taking account of the problematic social preconditions for democracy at the Union level. Its failure demonstrates the need to pay greater attention to the nature of public support for the EU, and to the ways in which this support is related to the democratic quality of EU institutions. Contrary to what is often assumed, EU support can still be quite adequately described by the figure of a ‘permissive consensus’. For better or worse, attempts to democratise EU institutions might undermine this form of support.