The question of the democratic deficit have been a much discussed topic in the field of European studies throughout the years. The lack of accountability in the decision-making together with lack of trust and interest from the public have created a situation where the unions democratic legitimacy has been questioned. The goal of this essay is to analyze what measures the EU have taken to restore the union’s legitimacy and in which direction it’s heading structure-wise through the recent ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and to examine if the public will be allowed to participate in the legislative process somehow. For this purpose I have used a qualitative text analysis of the democratic parts of the Lisbon Treaty to find out what reforms or changes that matter for the democratic process. Together with this I have also used Dimitris N. Chrysschoou’s four models for a democratic Europe to see in which direction the EU is going in terms of the nature of the union’s structure in order to determine the prospects of a legitimate governance. My conclusion is that although the member states after the Lisbon Treaty still enjoy much independence the EU is moving towards a more federalized governance and that the institutional reforms give good conditions for an accountable decision-making, while it’s doubtful to imagine that the reforms to increase the public’s participation will have any notable effects.

The democratic deficit of the European Union The European Parliament in the legislative process of the European Union - in comparison with the position of the Bundestag This thesis examines the democratic deficit of the European Union based on the comparison of the position of the European Parliament in the legislative process of the European Union and the Bundestag in German legislative process. I chose the comparison with the Bundestag because out of all the Member States, the German political system and its legislative process resembles the one of the European Union the most. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether and to what extent, taking into consideration the strengthening of the European Parliament in recent years, we can still discuss the democratic deficit of the European Union, when the European Union citizens and their elected representatives were excluded from effective participation in the adoption of legislative acts. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the context of the democratic deficit of the European Union within the role of the European Parliament according to a number of leading authors on the issue of European integration. The second part is devoted to the legislative process in Germany, focusing on the position and role of the Bundestag in...

The following paper focuses on the relatively new rise of populism which has seen a surge across states across the western world. Populism refers to governance of and for the people, as opposed to the ruling elites. As the sensation of democratic deficits and partisan cleavages increase, the reaction is populism which aims to restore the fundamental democratic values back to the people, advocating a more transparent form of democracy, where power moves away from the ruling elites, back to the people. We explore what populism entails through defining it through its theoretical identifiers and analyzing which political and social attitudes are present in supporters of populist parties. This study is meant to complement Staerkle and Greens study about the social representation of right-populists. By using the same research methodology as Staerkle and Green but also including left populists. This means looking at the social representation of left-right populist supporters and identifying mutual conventions and relations through a cross sectional case study of four countries which have seen a rise in populist parties. The findings lead us to see convergence in left-right populist parties toward institutional distrust and divergence in opinion towards globalism and multiculturalism. In essence, we compare and present the social representation of populist supporters of left-right populist parties and investigate which attributes cause the divergence in their political and social identities.

European Citizens' Initiative The main core of the thesis is the problematics of the European Citizens' Initiative, a tool relatively new that was put in place by the Lisbon Treaty and allows one million citizens from at least seven EU Member States to ask the European Commission to propose legislation in areas that fall within its competence. This thesis provides a detailed description of this instrument of participatory democracy, its historical foundations, its development and also the recent proposal for a regulation on the European citizens' initiative that aims to fill the gaps discovered during the period of its existence. It describes the formal and procedural requirements required for the successful submission of the initiative to the European Commission, particularly for registration, and thus the official launch of the initiative. It focuses on the forms of statements of support and the complication that it brought. The thesis also introduces some of the initiatives that have been organised since 2012, both successful and unsuccessful, including those that the Commission has refused to register. There is also an evaluation of the initiatives, the experiences and challenges that the organizers have met and especially the impact of the successful ones. The thesis points out particular...

EUROPEAN CITIZENS' INITIATIVE IN THE CONTEXT OF REDUCING DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT IN EU This thesis primarily involves a study of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), its functioning and contribution to democracy in the EU. The ECI is the first tool to facilitate transnational participatory democracy in the world. It allows EU citizens to invite the European Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties. For a better understanding of the democratic contribution of the ECI, the work first analyses the state of democracy in the EU, confirming the existence of a democratic deficit in the EU. It subsequently addresses its history and causes. Based on information obtained concerning democracy in the EU and its development, the work then proceeds to undertake a legal analysis of Regulation No. 211/2011 on the citizens' initiative, taking into account the history of its origins. It identifies the potential democratic contribution of the ECI for democracy in the EU. This specifically entails the activation of civil society by awakening political debate at Union level and bringing the EU closer to its citizens by involving them more closely in...

The EU is an organisation built on the concept of democracy. However, recent developments within certain member-states clearly contradict this claim. A paradox has hence occurred, which is referred to as the “Copenhagen-Dilemma”; only fully democratic states can become members of the union - but once a membership exists, the EU has proven inadequate to deal with democratic backsliding-tendencies. This essay argues that the political debate regarding this dilemma constitutes of at least two main categories of articles and within each of these, three positions can be found: Those focusing on causes to the problem and further how it can be understood are the ‘problem-oriented’ articles. Those arguing for solutions to the Copenhagen-dilemma are the ‘solution-oriented’ articles. Voices within this second category have been examined further in the analysis. They all accept the democratic deficit to be a problem for the EU – but the three positions offer different perceptions on how it can be countered most effectively: 1) The Conservatives; argues that the EU should use the tools already available and instead change their praxis 2) The Reformists; argues that the EU should further develop and reform the available tools 3) The Radicals; argues that the problem has caused a need for new institutions and tools to be created within the EU

<p>This study aims at describing if discrepancies can be found between the rhetoric in Swedish political parties’ electoral campaigns to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and their representatives’ actual behavior in the European Parliament and to develop plausible explanations to these possible discrepancies. The research method that is being used is content analysis, aiming to answer four research questions regarding the electoral campaigns to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and the behavior by the parties’ representatives during the following term of office. The main findings are that some discrepancies can be found regarding which questions are raised most frequently in the electoral campaigns and in the European Parliament, but that no discrepancies can be found regarding the positions taken in questions in the electoral campaigns and in the European Parliament. The plausible explanations that are presented are that the parties raise certain questions in the campaigns with the purpose of maximizing the number of votes and then raise other questions in the European Parliament, that size of the party group matters and that the individuals representing the parties might effect the coherence between rhetoric and actual behavior.</p>

This thesis analyses the democratic deficit problem of the European Union in a historical context. As the Union develops from a purely economic community into political and social entity, its democratic credentials are put into question. In this thesis, it is argued that technocratic and elitist institutional structure of the Union causes this democratic deficit. Therefore, in order to rectify it and make the Union more legitimate in the eyes of its citizens, the institutions of the Union should be re-structured.

This thesis analyzes the democratic deficit problem inherent in the European Union since the initial stages. In the study, the two dimensions of the problem is studied and within this context, the decision making procedures in the European Union, the functioning of the European Union institutions, the European Parliament elections are discussed in detail. Moreover, issues related to Europeanness and European identity are referred to and the improvements achieved by European Union concerning institutional structure and popular unity to overcome the democratic deficit are analyzed.

The democratic deficit in the U.S. becomes strikingly evident as statistics show that only half of the population actually votes in elections. Seeing that many who do not participate in the electoral processes are also generally members of socially marginalized groups then this is an increasing social issue. The effects of this become deepening socio-economic inequalities, greater marginalization and a weakened democracy. This study argues that social workers can contribute to solve this democratic deficit by using social work to reach and include socially marginalized groups in the democratic process of electoral participation. Focusing specifically on San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, I have used qualitative method to interview representatives from non-profit organizations that provide different kind of social service and academic professors from the disciplines of Social Work and Political Science in order to investigate how social work can include marginalized non-voting groups in the electoral process. The result is analyzed together with a theoretical framework built from research on democracy, welfare research, empowerment theory and theories on community practice. The findings show that social work has an important role in creating belonging among these marginalized groups and to bring them into the political process by using social mobilizing and advocacy social work with an empowerment perspective.