Richard Bellamy: Taking Back Control: Why National Democracy Needs the EU, and the EU Needs National Democracy

Richard Bellamy, Professor of Political Science, UCL and Director of the Max Weber Programme, EUI. Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter. Abstract The muted popular support for, and certain faiI dispute this analysis. I argue that the EU’s role consists of supporting the democratic institutions of the member states, not least by enabling them to regulate their mutual interactions in non-dominating ways. From this perspective, the standard solution to the EU’s democratic deficit would create a domestic democratic deficit within each of the member states, one I contend democracy at the EU level would be unable to compensate for. Indeed, the current rise in Euro scepticism can be regarded as a product of this situation. By contrast, I suggest we conceive the EU as an association of democratic states, the decisions of which are under their joint and equal control. Drawing on the book, the talk will cover why such an arrangement is necessary, the norms that govern it, and the institutional framework required for it to work effectively and efficiently as well as equitably.

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