The Library
Europe's democracy trilemma
Tools
Tools
Tools
Nicolaïdis, Kalypso and Youngs, Richard (2014) Europe's democracy trilemma. International Affairs, 90 (6). pp. 1403-1419. doi:10.1111/1468-2346.12176 ISSN 0020-5850.
Research output not available from this repository.
Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12176
Abstract
A truly democratic European Union seems to have become the graal of European politics, the project's redemptive promise and unreachable horizon. Much has been written about the gap between promise and performance and about the obstacles to EU democratization. Here, we suggest that one way to apprehend the ‘democratic deficit’ debate as it has evolved in the wake of the euro crisis is to think of it as a ‘democratic trilemma’. We argue that European legitimacy requires responses in different realms: first, an acknowledgement of Europe's ‘transnational democratic interdependence’; second, an anchoring of the functionalist European superstructure in ‘national democratic legitimacy’; and third, a grounding of both European and national power in ‘local democratic legitimacy’. While the very notion of trilemma points to the tensions that arise in trying to satisfy these requisites simultaneously, we nevertheless need to look for ways of alleviating the trilemma rather than coming up with democratic magic bullets in a single one of these realms. While our main goal is to reframe and open up the debate around the key concepts of empowerment, mutual recognition and flexibility, we also provide examples of what this may mean.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | International Affairs | ||||
| Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||
| ISSN: | 0020-5850 | ||||
| Official Date: | 12 November 2014 | ||||
| Dates: |
|
||||
| Volume: | 90 | ||||
| Number: | 6 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 1403-1419 | ||||
| DOI: | 10.1111/1468-2346.12176 | ||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
