Politicising the Union? Indeed, but how?

Simon Hix’s determination and steadfastness deserve our admiration. For close on ten years now, he has sustained, contrary to accepted thinking, his demonstration that the European Union is not as unique as is claimed and that the democratic deficit it suffers, real though it be, is not inescapable. Having designed, then conducted a vast research programme on the political leanings of European elected representatives, he proposes to demonstrate that the politicisation formulae we are familiar with – those of our national partisan systems – are also at work in the Union, and more specifically in its Parliament. On which basis there is nothing to stop us thinking that the Union could one day resolve its democratic problem: if the politicisation of the issues at stake is what enables citizens to own the policies, and if it is astir in the Union, all it needs is visibility.

His approach has the merit to remind us, in contrast with an oft-quoted argument, that the Union’s legitimacy does not rely only on the policies it yields but also on the manner in which it generates them. If citizens do not see how they can inflect the course of European decisions, they have every right to consider the European democratic deficit a very real problem.