Whose Deficit? The European Democracy and Its Democracies

Abstract

The European Union is a political entity that is profoundly controversial, especially regarding questions of democracy. The discussion is divided between intergovernmentalists and federalists. However, if we presume that the thesis of the democratic deficit is correct, we still need to determine whose deficit it is, who is responsible for it and who suffers because of it: is this, strictly speaking, an EU question or does it depend on the member states? The failure to clarify these questions leads to complaints that address the wrong audience and criticisms pointing in the wrong direction, as if we were unaware of the nature of our problems and, as logically follows, do not know who should take responsibility for their lack of resolution. The democratic deficit arose because the states have not managed to democratize their interdependence.