Models of Democracy: Elite Attitudes and the Democratic Deficit in the European Union

In: European Union politics: EUP, Volume 2, Issue 1, p. 53-79

Abstract

Most current debate about the democratic deficit equates democracy with party government and popular direction of policy (popular sovereignty). Alternative conceptions of democracy, pluralist or veto-group liberalism, are more consistent with European political and social circumstances and with EU institutions. After developing the difference between popular sovereignty and liberal models of democracy, the paper uses data from a survey of members of the European Parliament and members of the national parliaments in the EU to show that MP orientations with respect to these democratic values contribute significantly to explaining their evaluations of the quality of EU democracy and their preferences for EU institutional development.