The Issue of Democratic Deficit and the Idea of a Common European Ethos

• • 
  • Presentation speakers
    • Ahmet Nuri Yurdusev, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

  Abstract:

  It is a common place view that the European Union is democratically deficient and this is sometimes explained by the fact that there is no common European ethos like the one we find in nation-states, namely the nation. This paper takes the issue with this prevalent view and questions its validity. To begin with, it briefly recapitulates the concept and practice of democracy and makes the point that democracy has to do with procedure rather than substance. The paper then dwells on the idea of a common ethos and elucidates it as part of human collective identifications and relates it to substance rather than procedure. It concludes with the argument that the so-called democratic deficit of the EU cannot be explained with reference to the absence of a common European ethos.

 

Related Presentations

 

Does Speed Matter? The Impact of the EU Membership Incentive on Rule Adoption in Minority Rights Legislation

• Anna Parkhouse

In Search of a Role for the High Representative: The Legacy of Catherine Ashton

• Niklas Helwig
• Carolin Rüger

One Way Out of the Crisis through Higher Education and Research Policies for Growth

• Diana Adela Martin

A Realist Approach to the European Neighbourhood Policy: The Case of Russian Intervention in Ukraine

• Emirhan Göral

Crisis, Revised Economic Theory and Open Society: Euregio or Convergence?

• Gerhard Eichweber

The Unintended Consequences of Intergovernamentalism: ECB and Institutional Change in the Eurocrisis

• Alessio Sacchi