Integration, Democracy, and Legitimacy

The first half of the chapter addresses the rich literature concerning the rationale for EU integration. The objective is to render accessible to lawyers, scholarship from international relations and political science that has explored the dynamic of EU integration. It is also designed to reveal the implications of particular theories for EU democracy. The focus in the second half of the chapter shifts to democracy itself, and analysis of the burgeoning literature concerned with the nature of EU democracy, the extent to which the EU suffers from a democratic deficit, and the ways in which it can be alleviated. There is a significant measure of agreement as to the problematic features within the EU from a democratic perspective. The scholarly divergence turns on differences as to the importance of different factors in assessing EU democracy, which leads to differences of view on aspects of the democratic deficit critique. The discussion will draw on insights from integration theory where relevant to the inquiry.