Political sustainability of the European Union
Political Sustainability of the EU by Cristóbal Fernández de Soto T.
The European Union —as we know it— is ill fated because of its structural legitimacy deficit. If only the ideal of Europe remains for the greatest part of the people, its governance is perceived as decision-making centred (Germany and the rest), distant from citizen’s aspirations (both for the
German constituency and for the rest), distant from citizen’s experiences (technocratic rule by unelected bureaucrats), impose by the north and imposed upon the south.
Worldwide, representative democracies are displaying increasing signs of unsustainability and the
European Union is no exception. (1) The political order that maintains the capitalist production system and consumer culture is showing declining levels of electoral turnout, distrust in democratic institutions and dubiety of the political authorities.
In the input side, quantitative results during past presidential elections (those with the biggest convocational power) are consistent with the disenchantment of the electoral masses and qualitative studies suggest the erosion of the social capital, public participation and the overall capacities of citizenship. (2)
If this downward trend is to continue, current representation may at some stage become undemocratic because the provenance of the mandate originates from a narrowing minority. This has already occurred to the European
Parliament whose members have been directly elected by universal suffrage since
1979 but turnout has fallen consecutively at each election. In 1999 the Parliament was elected by less than 50% of the voters for the first time, and during the last election in 2009, turnout stood at 43% (18 out of 27 member states were under
50%).
Due to the low turnout and the legitimacy deficit that became apparent after the Constitutional referenda in the Netherlands and France in 2005, the EU is always looking for legitimacy mainly from the output side of
The European Union —as we know it— is ill fated because of its structural legitimacy deficit. If only the ideal of Europe remains for the greatest part of the people, its governance is perceived as decision-making centred (Germany and the rest), distant from citizen’s aspirations (both for the
German constituency and for the rest), distant from citizen’s experiences (technocratic rule by unelected bureaucrats), impose by the north and imposed upon the south.
Worldwide, representative democracies are displaying increasing signs of unsustainability and the
European Union is no exception. (1) The political order that maintains the capitalist production system and consumer culture is showing declining levels of electoral turnout, distrust in democratic institutions and dubiety of the political authorities.
In the input side, quantitative results during past presidential elections (those with the biggest convocational power) are consistent with the disenchantment of the electoral masses and qualitative studies suggest the erosion of the social capital, public participation and the overall capacities of citizenship. (2)
If this downward trend is to continue, current representation may at some stage become undemocratic because the provenance of the mandate originates from a narrowing minority. This has already occurred to the European
Parliament whose members have been directly elected by universal suffrage since
1979 but turnout has fallen consecutively at each election. In 1999 the Parliament was elected by less than 50% of the voters for the first time, and during the last election in 2009, turnout stood at 43% (18 out of 27 member states were under
50%).
Due to the low turnout and the legitimacy deficit that became apparent after the Constitutional referenda in the Netherlands and France in 2005, the EU is always looking for legitimacy mainly from the output side of