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The EU, democracy and institutional structure: Past, present and future

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Abstract

It is commonplace to bemoan the EU’s democratic deficiencies, as attested to by the wealth of literature discussing the issue from a variety of perspectives. This chapter is not a literature review. To the contrary, it advances my own view on the issue, albeit one that is informed by existing scholarship. The ensuing analysis is predicated on the assumption that a principal, albeit not exclusive, cause for concern about EU democracy is the mismatch, or absence of fit, between voter power and political responsibility.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Weiler et al. (1995), and Weiler (2012).

  2. 2.

    Maduro (2012).

  3. 3.

    Art 250(1) EC.

  4. 4.

    Neunreither (1971–1972), p. 233.

  5. 5.

    Featherstone (1994), pp. 154–155.

  6. 6.

    Wallace (1993), p. 293, 300.

  7. 7.

    Wallace and Smith (1995) p. 140.

  8. 8.

    Ibid 143.

  9. 9.

    Holland (1993), p. 16. Italics in the original.

  10. 10.

    Craig (2011), Ch 3.

  11. 11.

    Arts 14(1), 16(1) TEU.

  12. 12.

    Art 15 TEU.

  13. 13.

    Weiler et al. (1995), Follesdal and Hix (2006), p. 533; Nicolaïdis (2003, 2012).

  14. 14.

    Marks et al. (1996), p. 341, 342; Risse-Kappen (1996), p. 53, Moravcsik (1993), p. 473; Moravcsik (1992), Moravcsik (1991), p. 19; Pollack, EUI Working Papers, RSC 2000/55.

  15. 15.

    Norman (2005).

  16. 16.

    Craig (2010), Ch 3.

  17. 17.

    http://cer.eu/publications/archive/bulletin-article/2018/member-states-and-eu-taking-back-control.

  18. 18.

    Article 17(7) TEU.

  19. 19.

    See, e.g., Judis (2016), Moffitt (2016), Müller (2016); de Burca, SSRN 3105238.

  20. 20.

    Arts 15–18 TEU.

  21. 21.

    Scharpf (2015), p. 384, 395.

  22. 22.

    Ibid, p. 395.

  23. 23.

    Grimm (2015), p. 460.

  24. 24.

    Ibid, p. 470.

  25. 25.

    Ibid, p. 463.

  26. 26.

    Ibid, p. 464.

  27. 27.

    Ibid, p. 465.

  28. 28.

    Ibid, p. 465.

  29. 29.

    Ibid, p. 467.

  30. 30.

    Weiler (1981), p. 267, and Weiler (1991), pp. 2412–2431; Craig (1992), p. 453.

  31. 31.

    Grimm (2015), p. 471.

  32. 32.

    von Bogdandy et al. (2012), p. 489; Canor (2013), p. 383; Carrera et al. (2013); von Bogdandy and Sonnevend (2015), Kochenov and Pech (2015), p. 512; Müller (2015), p. 141; Kochenov (2015), Jakab and Kochenov (2016), and Closa and Kochenov (2016).

  33. 33.

    Scharpf (1997), p. 18; Scharpf (2002), p. 645; Scharpf (2003), pp. 79–104.

  34. 34.

    Scharpf (2002), p. 648.

  35. 35.

    Scharpf (2015), pp. 386–387.

  36. 36.

    Craig (2002), Chap 1; Craig (2003), p. 79.

  37. 37.

    Scharpf (2002), pp. 649–651.

  38. 38.

    Ibid, p. 652.

  39. 39.

    Scharpf (1999, 2015).

  40. 40.

    Scharpf (2015), p. 391.

  41. 41.

    Ibid, p. 392.

  42. 42.

    Wilkinson (2015), p. 313, 315.

  43. 43.

    Ibid, p. 327.

  44. 44.

    Dawson and de Witte (2015), p. 371, 372.

  45. 45.

    Ibid, p. 374.

  46. 46.

    Ibid, p. 375.

  47. 47.

    Ibid, p. 382. Italics in the original.

  48. 48.

    Fasone (2014), p. 2.

  49. 49.

    Dawson and de Witte (2015), p. 382.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Professor of English Law, St John’s College, Oxford, UK

    Paul Craig

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  1. Academy of European Law, Trier, Germany

    Wolfgang Heusel  & Jean-Philippe Rageade  & 

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Craig, P. (2019). The EU, democracy and institutional structure: Past, present and future. In: Heusel, W., Rageade, JP. (eds) The Authority of EU Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-58841-3_24

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