Democratic deficit
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The term democratic deficit is usually used to refer to organizations which are democratic to some extent, but are not as democratic as they could be. The United Nations and European Union are often accused of having democratic deficits.
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European Union
Those who argue that the European Union suffers from a democratic deficit often attribute this to a number of factors:
- The Council of the European Union, which is one half of the EU's bicameral legislature (the other half being the European Parliament), is made up of national ministers and meets in secret when agreeing legislation. As such, there is no parliamentary scrutiny of the Council's legislative decisions at EU level, and many last-minute negotiations are conducted by diplomats.
- There is no requirement for national parliaments to scrutinise the performance of their government ministers in the Council, though most do this to some extent as a matter of course.
- There are still some policy areas where codecision does not apply. In these areas, the European Parliament only has the power to approve or reject proposed legislation, or the right to be consulted before the Council takes its decision.
- The European Commission is made up of Commissioners who are proposed by national governments and approved by the European Parliament rather than being directly elected by citizens. Although the Commission has no legislative power, it is essentially the executive of the European Union and is the only body empowered to draft legislative proposals. Many eurosceptics argue that Commissioners wield more power than is justified by their limited democratic mandate.
Changes under the new constitutional treaty
Successive revisions of the treaties that form the constitution of the European Union have increased the power of the directly-elected European Parliament in an attempt to reduce the perceived democratic deficit. The new Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, if it is ratified, will make the following changes in this regard:
- It will extend the power of codecision to virtually all policy areas. This means that Parliament will become an equal legislative partner with the Council for virtually all EU-level decision-making.
- It will require the Council to meet in public when legislating.
- It will ensure that national parliaments receive information about new EU legislative proposals in enough time to mandate ministers on how to vote in the Council.
- It will also give national parliaments a new power to send any proposal back to the Commission for reconsideration if they believe the proposal lies outside the EU's competence (i.e. if they believe it covers a policy area for which the treaties do not allow EU-level decision-making).
- It will confirm the principle of subsidiarity as a fundamental principle of the Union.
- It will provide for the European Parliament to approve or reject the Council's candidate for President of the European Commission independently of the rest of the Commission. (At present, Parliament may only approve or reject the entire team of candidates en masse.)
- It will create a new citizens' right of initiative, obliging the Commission to consider any proposal for legislation that has the support of 1 million EU citizens.
However, some commentators argue that the treaty does not go far enough in reducing the perceived democratic deficit. In particular, they point out that:
- The appointed European Commission remains the sole initiator of legislative proposals. Other bodies (Parliament, Council, citizens) can only require it to consider drafting a proposal.
- Similarly, national parliaments may send a proposal back to the Commission for reconsideration, but there is no explicit requirement for the Commission to make any changes to its proposal as a result.
Canada
Some Canadians also argue that Canada is suffering from a democratic deficit that results in the concentration of political power in Ontario, and specifically the region of Ontario around Toronto. Canada's House of Commons has representation based on population, much of which is concentrated in this area. The Senate, which might otherwise counterbalance this with more geographically distributed representation, is appointed by the Prime Minister rather than elected by the people in the regions they represent.
External links
- Committee on European Scrutiny: Report on the Openness of the Council of the European Union (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmeuleg/152-xxxiii/15205.htm)de:Demokratiedefizit