Demoi-cracy in the EU

Abstract

The panel deals with the specific institutional configuration of democracy in the EU multilevel and multinational polity. Acknowledging the necessity to move beyond analogies to the nation-state, the panel seeks to explore the analytical leverage of the concept of demoi-cracy. Put briefly, demoi-cracy starts from the principle that the ‘sovereignty of the people’ in a democratic multinational polity is the joint sovereignty of citizens and communities (demoi) realized through interlinked procedures and multiple participations of citizens. In the EU, this principle is at least rudimentarily embodied in a variety of constitutional rules and institutions. First, citizens enjoy citizenship and individual rights as both EU and member state citizens. Second, citizens are directly represented in national parliaments as well as the European Parliament, whereas communities are mainly represented by national governments in the Council. In addition, the EU’s intricate system of policy coordination through committees and agencies also might have demoi-cratic quality. The aim is to analyze chains of accountability, participation, and information across political institutions in the EU’s polity and the potential contribution of these patterns to democracy. The panel is interested in contributions to the normative theory of demoi-cracy and in the empirical analysis of demoi-cratic institutions in the EU’s multilevel and multinational polity. Consequently, we invite papers that contribute to the theory of demoi-cracy, analyze the development and functioning of demoi-cracy in the EU, and address the question how far the EU’s institutional system fulfils the normative requirements of demoi-cracy.

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