A Demos for the European Union?
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9256.2005.00224.x |
| Date | 01 February 2005 |
| Published date | 01 February 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
A Demos for the European Union?
Mette Jolly1
University of Nottingham
The European Union’s alleged shortage of democratic legitimacy is said to be caused partly by the
polity’s lack of a demos which makes it unsuitable for majoritarian decision-making. However, this
problem is often overshadowed by – sometimes even confused with – the lack of public enthusi-
asm as regards European integration. But, although clearly related, these are not synonymous.
The no-demos thesis focuses on the lack of a transnational political relationship between individ-
uals and is related mainly to the legitimacy of the EU’s decision-making processes, whereas the issue
of popular support primarily relates to the legitimacy of European integration itself. In this article,
I address the former by attempting to answer the following questions. Firstly, what do we mean
when we say that the EU has no demos? Secondly, does the EU really need a demos, and if so,
how can one be created?
What is ‘a demos’?
Translated from ancient Greek, the word ‘demos’ means people as in a people for
political purposes, i.e. ‘public’ or ‘citizen body’ rather than ‘nation’ (ethnos). Occa-
sionally, the ‘demos’ denotes the smaller group of individuals selected to govern
the larger group (see Dahl, 1989, p. 4). This distinction stems from the days when
only a limited number of individuals were citizens with the ensuing rights poten-
tially to participate in government. In discussions about the demos, this is the tra-
ditional focus of democratic literature.
However, when we talk about the demos in relation to the EU, the emphasis is not
so much on who should govern as who should be governed, or in other words ‘who
constitute the people?’.2 Democratic theory is not particularly helpful in answering
this question precisely because it tends to presuppose the existence of the demos
(Dahl, 1989, p. 209; Weiler et al., 1995, p. 5). Having said this, it is clear that, as a
minimum, a democratic system needs citizens who are connected to each other by a
feeling of common identity, or what Joseph Weiler has named the ‘subjective man-
ifestations of peoplehood’, which consist of ‘a sense of social cohesion, shared destiny
and collective self-identity which, in turn, result in and deserve loyalty’ (Weiler et
al., 1995, p. 10). Thus, without the presence of a collective self there can be no self-
determination, let alone self-government. The reason is twofold. At the most abstract
level, the group has to be able collectively to transfer authority and commit to a social
contract.3 But, perhaps more importantly, the need for a demos is related to the prin-
ciple of majoritarian decision-making, namely that members of a democratic politi-
cal system must respect the decisions of a majority. In order for this to happen, there
needs to be a sense of shared political identity (Dahl, 1989, p. 161; Lord, 1998, p. 107;
Weiler, 1998, p. 237; Chryssochoou, 2001, p. 251). Fritz Scharpf identifies the
common identity as the ‘essential sameness arising from pre-existing commonalties
© Political Studies Association, 2005.
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
A D E M O S F O R T H E E U R O P E A N U N I O N ?
13
Figure 1: Two questions about the demos
Demos = who should be
governed?
Demos =
who
should
govern?
of history, language, culture and ethnicity (Scharpf, 1999, p. 8). Without this the
legitimacy of the political unit will be contested, however impeccable its procedures
(Lord and Beetham, 2001, p. 444; Decker, 2002, p. 263). As regards the European
Union, most commentators agree that there is no such transnational demos at
present (see Verdun and Stavradis, 2001, p. 218; Weiler, 1998, p. 246; Scharpf, 1999,
p. 9; Lord, 1998, p. 114).
Europeans themselves seem to share this view in so far as the demos is understood
as a shared cultural identity. The last Eurobarometer survey,...
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