The direct election of the Commission President: a Presidential approach to democratising the European Union

Summary:

It has become common knowledge by now that the European Union does not have it particularly easy when it comes to democracy. A commensurately difficult task for political science is to analyse the EU in conventional democratic-theoretical categories or to produce generally valid conclusions on the condition and necessity of democracy at the European level.

This situation stems from four interlinking factors: (1) the functional and structural ambivalence of this sui generis political body, (2) the subsequent uncertainty with regard to the criteria to be used for evaluating the democratic quality of European governance, (3) the resultant differences in opinion as to which model is the most appropriate for democratising the EU, and (4) the continuing dissent on whether the EU – because of its peculiar nature – can or should be democratised at all. It is precisely this unprecedented character in turn that renders the analysis and assessment of democratic legitimacy in the European Union a difficult, if not hopeless endeavour.