Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The European Union balances on a democratic intersection, stretched between supporters of the democratic deficit thesis and those who insist that the EU is democratic enough, resembling different aspirations towards the future of the EU. Two primary aspects on democratic deficit exist, institutional and sociological, and there is a standardized type which includes relevant arguments of both perceptions. Tendencies of the construction of the political authority of the EU aim at achieving actual democratic representation which requires the existence of mechanisms of control, transparency, and accountability. The lack of these mechanisms is the result of the great distance between the policymakers and citizens, which lies at the core of the argument on the democratic deficit of the EU. Non-conformists deny existence of the democratic deficit and define the EU as an international organization or a supranational regulatory agency, their specific approach is that, regardless of whether the deficit of democracy is defined as a lack of public accountability or as a crisis of legitimacy, the empirical evidence for the existence of a democratic deficit in the EU is inconclusive. This view has not adopted the reality of progress of the integration process achieved in the last two decades.