The Majoritarian Challenge to European Constitutionalism

First draft ch: Overall, this book argues that the greatest danger in Europe today is the rise of majoritarianism in its different guises. It has been argued repeatedly that since the 2. World War Europe transformed to a constitutionalist system with strong courts, judicial review, human rights and a rule of law Union based on the acceptance of supranational law. In this narrative, however, it has been fundamentally overlooked how a strong anti-constitutionalist current has been thriving in particular in Scandinavia where constitutionalism never took root and where the idea that courts should be able to overrule the popular majority continues to be regarded as highly problematic. We have seen the same tendencies in the United Kingdom, which is now leaving the EU partly, at least for some of the same reasons: questioning supranational law, The European Court and the European Human rights system. While the main focus of this book will be to highlight and attempt to explain and problematize the overlooked anti-constitutionalist Nordic current, it also asks whether, how and to what degree the raise of illiberal democracy in some of the Central-and Eastern European countries like Hungary and Poland, may be indirectly legitimized by the anti-constitutionalism of some of Europe’s more progressive Member States? Will the EU be able to stand up for its constitutionalist foundation in the future or are we facing the end of constitutionalism in Europe and a backsliding into majoritarianism where ‘the people is always right’ and where courts and constitutionalism represent an illegitimate political correct elite?