OAFP 9380 - Democratic Tensions in the European Union

There has been a longstanding scholarly and public debate surrounding the form and signif- icance of the democratic deficit in the EU. Concerns regarding the democratic foundation of the EU are discussed as the primary catalysts for public contestation within the EU, culminating in the Brexit vote in 2016. However, what criteria should be used to assess the democratic deficit in the EU? How severe is the democratic deficit depending on the particular definition of democracy being applied? These fundamental questions will be explored in this class.

In the first part of the seminar, we will examine various approaches to defining democracy. In the second part, our focus will shift to the institutional dimension of EU democracy. We will provide a brief overview of the institutional structure of the EU and delve into the roles of national governments, parties, and the public in relation to EU democracy. Additionally, we will compare our findings to classical scholarly notions of the democratic deficit in the EU. During the latter part of the class, we will explicitly concentrate on contentious policies both at the EU and national levels, such as redistribution and migration. In our final session, we will summarize the insights gained throughout this seminar and engage in discussions regarding the future of EU democracy.

A basic knowledge of the EUs political system is required as well as skills to engage with quantitative and qualitative academic literature. Additionally, skills to either work empirically, either quantitatively or qualitatively, will be needed for the seminar paper.

The course will be mostly taught in seminar format, requiring active engagement of the students. We will also address group projects in the class.

• 2 Response papers to the core readings (20 percent of the grade each)
• 1 seminar paper which engages with empirical material (60 percent of the final grade)

Each session will be based on two core readings per week