Europe's Democratic Imaginary: Government by the People, for the People and of the People?
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1502200601 |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Author | Jan Komárek |
| Subject Matter | Guest Editorial |
784 22 MJ 6 (2015)
GUEST EDITORIAL
EUROPE’S DEMOCRATIC IMAGINARY:
GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE, FOR
THE PEOPLE AND OF THE PEOPLE?
J K *
Since Abraham Lincol n’s famous Gettysburg Address, democracy has been imagi ned
as the ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’.1 Writing more than a
century later about the legit imacy of the EU, Fritz Scharpf translated t he ‘government by
the people’ into ‘input legitimac y’ and ‘government for the people’ as ‘output legitimacy’.2
People decide who gets to the government which should exercise its powers for their
bene t. e phrase ‘of the people’ drops out from the de nition – and from the public
imaginar y. We take it for granted that it is t he people, our equals, who sit in government,
not aristocracy or machi nes.3
In this short editorial, I would like to consider two quest ions that Lincoln’s words
have prompted in me, observing t he contemporary condition of Europe. First , whether
in Europe (and elsewhere in the world that ca lls itself ‘democratic’) we should not be
asking who it is that actually governs us. What if the taken-for-granted government of
people in fact consists of someone, or possibly something else? Secondly, I would like
to raise a fur ther question: what is it that makes government over the people in Europe
legitimate? In my view, the fact that we do not seriously ask the rst question can be
explained by our ans wer to the second. Until we confront both quest ions, we will not
be able to turn the present discontent in and about Europe into something positive,
something that can strengthen ‘Europe as a way of life’,4 which is distinct from that on
both sides of the world, to the Eas t and to the West.
* Assistant Profe ssor in EU law, European Instit ute and Department of Law, LSE , J.Komarek@lse.ac.uk .
With than ks to my colleague Mi ke Wilkinson , and the usual dis claimer.
1 On the trans formative power of Lincol n’s words see G.Wills, Linc oln at Gettysburg : e Words at
Remade America (Simon & Schuster, 1992).
2 F. Sch arpf , Governing in Europe: E ective and Democratic? (OUP, 1999), p.6–13.
3 A er e Matrix, the dystopian movie f rom the late nineties de picting the world where mach ines took
control over human li ves without them noticing, one ca n never be sure, however, especially w ith the
advance of so-c alled autonomous weapons.
4 With reference to T. Judt, Postwar Europe: A Hi story of Europe since 1945 (P engui n Pres s, 20 05), p.7 77–
800 (who however was rat her pessimistic about t he EU’s ability to defend it).
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