Democracy Is A Democratic Institution?

There is no doubt that the United States of America is a democracy, but how democratic are some of the components of our system of government? For example, the Electoral College is used when selecting the president of The United States, but the founders developed the Electoral College based on a theory of how it should work with no practical, real-world example of how it realistically works. Based on the three core principles of democracy which are popular sovereignty, political equality, and political freedom, the Electoral College falls short when assessed using these democratic values.

When identifying the presence of a democratic deficit in the European Union, it is important to consider a range of factors, including international treaties and the effect they had on its structured governmental framework. One of the first official agreements established by the European Union (formerly

The democratic deficit is a theory developed by scholars in order to illustrate that the European Union and its institutional bodies suffer from a lack of democracy (Wincott, 1998, p. 414). However, there are many definitions of the democratic deficit (Chryssochoou, 2000; Justice, 1996; Warleigh, 2003; Weiler, Haltern & Mayer, 1995) depending on the views and approaches of each scholar. Joseph Weiler's ‘standard version' of the democratic deficit is one of the most common definitions and it is a set of widely-used arguments by academics, scholars and the media (Weiler et al., 1995, cited by Follesdal & Hix, 2005, p. 4). It consists of five claims that explain why the EU can be called undemocratic and they are the following: a) there is an

In this assignment I will be assessing the democratic accountability of the European Union. I will begin by briefly describing the institutions, their functions, compositions and discuss how they work as check and balance system to ensure democratic accountability further to look on to how laws are made and what they are In order to establish whether or not the EU is in fact answerable to its citizens.

The European Union (EU) is fundamentally democratic and is evident through its institutions, however, the current democratic electoral structure is of great concern. The EU is a new type of political system, often referred to as a sui generis, implying its uniqueness as there exists and a non comparable political body. The EU can neither regarded as a ‘state’ nor as an ‘international institution’ as it combines supranational as well as intergovernmental characteristics (Hix, 1999, p7). In this regard it has developed its own understandings of what democracy is. It is evident that the development of and spread of democracy is a central concept and foundation to all politics within the EU, and remains focuses on makings its governing

Athens was a model of democratic government because for every little decision to big decision, the majority of people would decide, because it was relatively small.

This paper will assess the claim that supremacy of EU law is still an evolving and debatable concept. To do this, I have divided this paper into four sections. The first section will discuss the establishment of supremacy in EU law through ECJ case law. The second section will explore the vibrant debate surrounding constitutional pluralism that has arisen since the early 1990s. The third section will examine the debate and impact of the codification of primacy in the early 2000s. The fourth section will examine the extent to which the principle of sovereignty has been accepted in three EU Member States, namely, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Poland.

A legitimate state can be defined as “A state in which its citizens have little or no significant resistance to the public policy and leadership of the state in question due to the rightful/legitimate exercise of power.” This Legitimacy of state is often a hard term to apply to any form of government in the modern political world due to the very differing cultures between the western and eastern world. However the general consensus of many political leaders is democracy is the only truly legitimate way of ruling any state. Democracy in the words of Abraham Lincoln is a government formed “of the people, by the people, for the people” where the power of

In 1787, when the Constitution was being written, the people of the United States decided they wanted a democratic form of government. A democracy is “a form of government in which the people rule themselves either directly or through freely elected representatives” (American Government & Politics, pg. 5). Furthermore, a democracy is broken down into two more forms: a direct democracy and a representative democracy (also can be considered a republic). A direct democracy is a form of government, originally founded in ancient Greece, in which the people directly pass laws and make other key decisions. A representative democracy is a form of government in which the people choose their leaders through free elections in which candidates

study claims our government is more like an oligarchy than it is a democracy at this point. An

When analysing the system of the EU on grounds of its democratic legitimacy it is important to define democracy itself. Democracy is a value-laden term that has various meanings and comes in different shapes (e.g. representative vs. direct democracy). As none of the member states in the EU practices direct democracy to a mentionable extent it would not be suitable to assess the EU on terms of direct democratic participation. A reasonable

Democracy, in essence, is the governance of and by the entirety of the population. In a democracy, the citizens exercise their power directly or through an elected representative. Democracy is ideally a structure of governance that is by and for the people. These definitions represent democracy in its most pure unadulterated sense, true direct democracy (or participatory democracy). James N. Danziger in Understanding the political world expresses that “[…] participatory democracy […] is when all the citizens are active, direct participants in making public policy decisions. Realistically [there is no true form of this political system].” (Chapter 7, Page 170) As inevitably experienced with any political system, some are more equal than others. Though. in contrast to other forms of governance, such as federalism, republics, monarchies, dictatorships, etc., democracy has been proven to be the most efficient. As Winston Churchill famously said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

The European Union (EU) is not a typical international organization. The mix of intergovernmental and supranational institutions makes the EU a unique, distinctive political, and economic system. As Europe has spiraled from one crisis to the next, difficult discussions haves arisen about how much more power should be delegated to Brussels. Even though the EU advocates for “ever closer union”, through increased integration, states are becoming hesitant to relinquish power to the EU. This is due to the fact that state sovereignty has become threatened; it is being compromised by a combination of the lack of effective democratic institutions and the loss of states have lost control of law-making to legislation power to EU institutions. Euroenthuthiasts argue that state sovereignty is enhanced, not threatened, by reallocating power to EU institutions. However, Eurosceptics dispute that too much control has seceded to the EU making is a threat to state sovereignty. My position aligns with Eurosceptics, for the EU has weakened state sovereignty do to increased centralization of power in EU institutions that lack legitimacy. The European Project has obtained a copious amount of jurisdiction from states and eroded a basic fundamental freedom of the modern state- sovereignty. Since the EU has with goals to deepen and widen integration it’s clear that forfeiting state sovereignty will only intensify. My essay will start with a brief history of the European Union and a short

The European Union (EU) was established in order to prevent the horrors of modern warfare, experienced by most of Europe during the World Wars of the 20th century, from ever ensuing again, by aiming to create an environment of trust with the countries of Europe cooperating in areas such as commerce, research and trade (Adams, 2001). The EU has evolved into an economic, trade, political and monetary alliance between twenty-eight European Member States. While not all Member States are in monetary union (i.e. share the currency of the euro), those that are form the ‘Euro-zone’ (Dinan, 2006). The EU can pass a number of types of legislation, with a regulation, act, or law, being the most powerful. Its ‘tricameral’ (European Union, 2007)

Democracy can be defined as a system of governance where there is a political system in which governments are chosen through free and fair elections, there is an active participation in political process by the citizenry, laws and procedures apply equally to all citizenry. Alison Ayers argues that democracy comprises of a periodic election of political representatives, through multi party elections, rule of law, constitutionalism, good governance, and the promotion of human rights. These principles form part of the modern state, and are based on on neoliberal values such as accountability, transparency, tolerance and pluralism (Ayers, 2006) . A democratic state is one where civil, political and economic rights centre around the individual, and these individual rights are protected within a constitution, where everyone is equal before the law. Political leaders are chosen through regular elections in which two or more individuals compete against each other. These individuals align themselves with political parties, which are used as vehicles to canvas for votes which puts them in power until the next election (Ayers, 2006) .