Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union

In this paper we address the ongoing debate on the democratic quality and the legitimacy of the European Union. We focus on the recent argument that at least in the foreseeable future the European Union will not be able to develop an inputoriented legitimisation due to a lack of a ‘thick’ collective identity and therefore should be satisfied with an output-oriented legitimisation. We raise several question with regard to this debate. First, we address the empirical implications of this argument. Output-oriented legitimisation supposes both a common perception across the European Union of the most important problems to be solved and a common understanding that these problems should be solved at the European level. Secondly, we take issue with the argument that a well developed democratic political system at the European level requires a thick collective identity. The concept of a ‘demos’ is not identical to the concept of a ‘people’ (Volk) in its sociological meaning. Also, we express our doubts about the democratic quality of a democracy only based on government for the people. We argue that once political decisions are taken at the European level, there is every reason to apply the same normative democratic principles to the European Union that are applicable to its member states. In modern politics democracy almost by definition means representative democracy and representative democracy supposes a competitive party system. Therefore, we address the question to what extent a competitive party system at the European level would be feasible.