Centripetal Democracy

The euro-crisis has publicised the EU like never before, revealing to the popular mind a legitimacy gap that has heretofore been largely non-salient for European citizens. Meanwhile, claims of undemocratic rule from above have been one of the major drivers behind the British vote to leave the EU, as well as further demands for referendums on withdrawal from the Union by politicians elsewhere. Calls for the democratisation of the EU are growing ever louder, both within and beyond the corridors of European institutions. By combining an original normative democratic theory with a comparative analysis of how Belgium and Switzerland have variously managed to sustain themselves as multilingual democracies, this interdisciplinary book identifies the main institutional features of a democratically legitimate European Union and the conditions required to bring it about. An emphasis is placed on reforming electoral institutions and the introduction of a sophisticated scheme of direct democracy.