A HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK OF BARGAINING AND CONTENTION − LEGITIMACY AND DEMOCRACY IN THE EU
A HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK OF BARGAINING AND CONTENTION − LEGITIMACY AND DEMOCRACY IN THE EU

Summary/Abstract: The European Union legitimacy deficit is much debated in practice and science. Solutions for this deficit focus primarily on the institutional level. Democratic reforms would shape the EU more according to the national parliamentary model. This article argues that such democratic reforms are doomed to fail as a result of the absence of bargaining between political elites and citizens in EU history. From a historical perspective, the process of bargaining between rulers and citizens is crucial to the development of a thriving democratic system. Citizens do not engage in public contention about EU issues, because the EU has developed through processes of elite bargaining. A European public sphere is underdeveloped and the European Parliament is not capable of evoking civic attention, preference formation, and contention. Therefore, the article concludes that the EU legitimacy deficit can be most effectively harnessed through politicization of EU issues at the national level. Instead of unitary democratic reform at the EU level, national level politicization would do more justice to differences between member states and to the history of the EU. −“He that buildeth in the street, many masters has to meet”− English saying

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