TESTIRANJE TEORIJE ARENDA LIJPHARTA U PRAVNOM I POLITIČKOM SISTEMU EVROPSKE UNIJE
TESTING THE THEORY OF AREND LIPHART IN THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, the author analyzes the constitutional and political system of the European Union, as a form of integration of states with an applied democratic political regime. The first goal of the paper is to explain the legal nature of the European Union (is it an international organization, federation or confederation...) and which model of democracy is applied in the European Union. In this paper, I will label the European Union as a confederation and give arguments for that position. Also, I will test Arend Lijphart’s opinion that the European Union applied consociational democracy. I will compare my findings with other progressive forms of federalism in the world (United States of America, Germany, Austria and Switzerland). The second goal of the paper is to analyze how democracy and federalism overlap and complement each other and what are the reasons for the state/forms of association of states to accept one form. The principles of consociation and federalism are sometimes mixed, so that the application of the mechanism of consociation democracy brings the view that a state is not a federation (and therefore not a state), but a form of association of states. In this paper is offered a comprehensive interpretation of the European Union as a new form of consociation (which we can call an interstate consociation), different from classic federal and unitary consociations.

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