Crises in the Euro Area and Challenges for the European Union’s Democratic Legitimacy

Democracy’s health is under scrutiny not only at the national, but also regional level. The EU’s travails have become symptomatic of the challenges that beset the current global order. A major tension has taken root between economic decision-making and popular disquiet. The EU’s crisis derives from the triangular relationship between market logic, popular legitimacy, and partial regional integration. This brief unpacks what is at stake for the EU’s democratic legitimacy in an attempt to resolve the economics of the eurozone crisis. It then assesses how proposals for political union may, as currently crafted, misdiagnose what is most amiss with European democracy.

This piece originally appeared as a chapter in The Democratic Disconnect: Citizenship and Accountability in the Transatlantic Community, published in 2013 by the Transatlantic Academy.