‘E pluribus unum......forum?’ A Marxist approach to the EU’s democratic deficit
This article approaches the issue of the European Union’s (EU) democratic deficit from a Marxist perspective. This issue has been central to the exponential rise of Euroscepticism that influenced processes like Brexit and Grexit (despite the latter’s frustration), as well as the rise of explicitly a...
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| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2025-06-01
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| Series: | European Law Open |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2752613525000116/type/journal_article |
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| author | Dimitrios Kivotidis |
| author_facet | Dimitrios Kivotidis |
| author_sort | Dimitrios Kivotidis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article approaches the issue of the European Union’s (EU) democratic deficit from a Marxist perspective. This issue has been central to the exponential rise of Euroscepticism that influenced processes like Brexit and Grexit (despite the latter’s frustration), as well as the rise of explicitly anti-EU national governments in European countries. This article shows that critiques of the EU’s democratic deficit (even cutting-edge ones, like the one placing emphasis on the notion of the ‘economic constitution’) are inadequate because the debate is already embedded in ideological compromise. Offering a brief exposition of the Marxist approach to the democratic form of the capitalist state, it attempts to show the limitations of critical approaches which overlook the issue of class rule and state power in their calls for democratisation. To do so, the article outlines the structural function and class character of the EU, as well as its role as a (supra-)state formation in the process of capital accumulation. Ultimately, it offers a Janus-faced critique of democratic deficit in Europe, one the one hand arguing that the critique of the EU economic constitution as neoliberal is limited because it fails to account for the scope of reform that the EU allows to respond to the challenges of the process of capital accumulation, while on the other concluding that the solution to the democratic deficit cannot simply be a return to nation-state democracy which is equidistant from actual self-government of the popular strata as its EU counterpart. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8478552131284904bf579ec4dc1da378 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2752-6135 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Law Open |
| spelling | doaj-art-8478552131284904bf579ec4dc1da3782025-08-20T09:23:28ZengCambridge University PressEuropean Law Open2752-61352025-06-01434836810.1017/elo.2025.11‘E pluribus unum......forum?’ A Marxist approach to the EU’s democratic deficitDimitrios Kivotidis0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3695-2487Department of Law, Goldsmiths University of London, London, UKThis article approaches the issue of the European Union’s (EU) democratic deficit from a Marxist perspective. This issue has been central to the exponential rise of Euroscepticism that influenced processes like Brexit and Grexit (despite the latter’s frustration), as well as the rise of explicitly anti-EU national governments in European countries. This article shows that critiques of the EU’s democratic deficit (even cutting-edge ones, like the one placing emphasis on the notion of the ‘economic constitution’) are inadequate because the debate is already embedded in ideological compromise. Offering a brief exposition of the Marxist approach to the democratic form of the capitalist state, it attempts to show the limitations of critical approaches which overlook the issue of class rule and state power in their calls for democratisation. To do so, the article outlines the structural function and class character of the EU, as well as its role as a (supra-)state formation in the process of capital accumulation. Ultimately, it offers a Janus-faced critique of democratic deficit in Europe, one the one hand arguing that the critique of the EU economic constitution as neoliberal is limited because it fails to account for the scope of reform that the EU allows to respond to the challenges of the process of capital accumulation, while on the other concluding that the solution to the democratic deficit cannot simply be a return to nation-state democracy which is equidistant from actual self-government of the popular strata as its EU counterpart.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2752613525000116/type/journal_articlePublic LawDemocracydemocratic deficiteconomic constitutionMarxism |
| spellingShingle | Dimitrios Kivotidis ‘E pluribus unum......forum?’ A Marxist approach to the EU’s democratic deficit European Law Open Public Law Democracy democratic deficit economic constitution Marxism |
| title | ‘E pluribus unum......forum?’ A Marxist approach to the EU’s democratic deficit |
| title_full | ‘E pluribus unum......forum?’ A Marxist approach to the EU’s democratic deficit |
| title_fullStr | ‘E pluribus unum......forum?’ A Marxist approach to the EU’s democratic deficit |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘E pluribus unum......forum?’ A Marxist approach to the EU’s democratic deficit |
| title_short | ‘E pluribus unum......forum?’ A Marxist approach to the EU’s democratic deficit |
| title_sort | e pluribus unum forum a marxist approach to the eu s democratic deficit |
| topic | Public Law Democracy democratic deficit economic constitution Marxism |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2752613525000116/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dimitrioskivotidis epluribusunumforumamarxistapproachtotheeusdemocraticdeficit |