A democratic audit of the European Union

Abstract:

Democracy is offered as a panacea for an increasingly wide range of political ills or malfunctions. The structures within which democracy is seen to work differ across national boundaries and across institutional disciplines within countries and both these aspects may be seen to exist in the European Union. Do they coexist to the detriment of democracy and do they amount to the democratic deficit about which so many commentators wail repeatedly? This book applies the techniques of democratic auditing to the EU.

The work opens with a chapter that seeks to identify the reasonable expectations of any method for assessing democracy in the EU. The second chapter looks at the process for a democratic audit of the EU. There then follow chapters on various attributes of democratic rule. Chapter three addresses citizenship, rights and participation. Consent is the feature of chapter four, while representation is discussed in chapter five. Accountability of the Commission and Council are examined in chapters six and seven respectively. Chapter eight discusses constitutionalism. Chapter nine presents the conclusions drawn from these chapters and plant some signposts as to a possible way forward.

The work will interest scholars, students, policy researchers, engaged in the fields of European Union studies, constitutional affairs and international politics.

Christopher Lord is Professor of European Politics at the University of Leeds.