Democratic Deficits and EU Membership: Should You Stay Or Should You Go?

If we conceive of the people as a bounded demos who is sovereign and entitled to rule on the basis of its own interest, then it is likely to conflict with the interests and freedom of other people not part of that bounded demos, the outsiders, whose interests and freedom might be negatively affected by the decisions made by the people. If the outsiders’ interests are of democratic concern, democracy conflicts with sovereignty understood as the absolute and unconstrained authority of a bounded demos (represented by a state). This implies that international and supranational cooperation between states and the people they represent such as the EU achieves a potential democratic quality. It also means that member states’ withdrawal from international or supranational organisations is prima facie problematic because withdrawal reduces the possibility and, under certain favourable conditions, the ability of citizens to co-decide democratically in their common affairs. However, the paper investigates whether this always applies, including (a) when either the member states or the institutions of the supranational organisation suffer from democratic deficits, (b) when there is great uncertainty about what will be the effect of initiatives to remove democratic deficits and (c) whether the size of the member state matters (is it more problematic for large member states to leave than for small member states to leave?). Generally, the paper is sceptical about member states leaving supranational organisations like the EU, but it does identify some cases where exit makes good sense, also from a democratic point of view.