The Democratic Deficit in the European Union
| DOI | 10.1177/1465116503004001583 |
| Published date | 01 March 2003 |
| Date | 01 March 2003 |
| Author | Christophe Crombez |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The Democratic Deficit in the
European Union
Much Ado about Nothing?
Christophe Crombez
University of Leuven, Belgium, and Stanford University, USA
ABSTRACT
This paper studies the democratic deficit in the European
Union (EU). It examines what constitutes a democratic
deficit, analyzes whether there is one in the EU, and offers
suggestions for a solution. I focus on the output of the legis-
lative process and study whether policies deviate from those
emerging in other political systems. In particular, I present
a formal model of policy-making in a bicameral system,
apply it to the EU, and compare the EU with the United
States. I conclude that the institutional setup of the EU does
not lead to policies that are fundamentally undemocratic,
and that the composition of its institutions is not inherently
less democratic than that of the US political institutions. I
also find, however, that a democratic deficit may exist owing
to a lack of transparency and an excess of delegation in the
legislative process.
101
European Union Politics
[1465-1165(200303)4:1]
Volume 4 (1): 101–120: 030583
Copyright© 2003
SAGE Publications
London, Thousand Oaks CA,
New Delhi
KEY WORDS
democracy
effectiveness
enlargement
European Union
06 Crombez (to/d) 1/23/03 4:13 PM Page 101
Introduction
The European Union (EU) is currently organizing a ‘Convention on the Future
of the European Union.’ The convention consists of representatives of the
national governments and parliaments of the 15 member countries and the
13 accession countries, and representatives of the European Parliament and
the Commission. Its task is to prepare for institutional reform, and it may lead
to a fifth round of major changes in the institutional setup of the EU in less
than 20 years. According to the Commission (CEC, 2001) ‘[t]he key questions
which the Convention should tackle are: what should Member States do
together in the future Union [and] how should democratic legitimacy and
effectiveness of the Union be improved?’
These questions are particularly relevant in view of the imminent enlarge-
ment of the EU. The Nice Treaty altered the composition of the principal EU
institutions to prepare for enlargement, with democratic legitimacy and effec-
tiveness in mind, but, even if it is ratified, the intake of 13 new members may
still complicate policy-making. The tightening of the qualified majority
requirements in the Council and the increases in the numbers of Commis-
sioners and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) may reduce effec-
tiveness. The larger relative weight of smaller countries in the Commission
may lead to a decline in democratic legitimacy.
The democratic character and the effectiveness of the EU institutions are
often questioned. Researchers, politicians, and journalists alike tend to char-
acterize the EU institutions as suffering from a ‘democratic deficit,’ a lack of
democratic accountability. The Economist newspaper (2000), for example,
states:
[The] theme of a ‘democratic deficit’, in Brussels jargon, is popular among critics
of the Union. . . . The lack of functioning democracy reflects in part the failings
of the European Parliament, which is supposed to give Europe’s peoples their say
in Union affairs.
When Commission President Romano Prodi asked ‘three wise men’ –
Jean-Luc Dehaene, former Belgian prime minister, David Simon, former
British trade minister, and Richard von Weizsäcker, former German president
– to present a report on the institutional implications of enlargement in
September 1999, they offered a dark view on the effectiveness of the EU
institutions. In particular, Dehaene et al. (1999) evaluated the functioning of
the institutions as follows:
It is a fact that the institutional structure of the Union has, in recent years, shown
signs of strain. Everyone acknowledges that the Council is not working well. . . .
The efficiency of the institutional process has also clearly been hindered by the
European Union Politics 4(1)
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