EUROPEANISATION AND THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY

Abstract

This article sets out to clarify the complex relationship between Europeanisation and democracy. In the process we will get a better understanding of what the EU is, what it is not, and what it might become in the shadow of the ongoing Eurozone crisis. Organisationally, the EU is a hybrid between intergovernmentalism and statehood. It has an ideological commitment to democracy and European integration. It has done more to promote democracy in Europe than anyone else, but it cannot practice all that it teaches. It is not – and cannot develop into – a full-blown democracy on a par with its member states as long as European state and nation building remains incomplete.

Keywords

• Europeanisation
• state building
• democracy