A More Democratic Community: The Place of Democracy in the History of European Integration

By addressing the “place” of democracy in the history of European integration, this book bridges the political history of postwar Europe with the history of European integration. It shows that European integration and the democratic stability of Western Europe were deeply connected, albeit in contradictory and non-linear ways.

The histories of European unification and of West European democracy during the second half of the twentieth century have often been considered as separate or even antagonistic processes with the institutions of European integration being regarded as bastions of bureaucratic rule. A More Democratic Community challenges this assumption and argues that European integration benefited from the democratic accountability of member states while contributing to the validation of national democratic institutions. However, it also unveils a paradox: as integration deepened, it diminished the power of national parliaments, sparking a democratic accountability crisis within the Community.

• | Author: Sara Lorenzini, Umberto Tulli
• | Publisher: Berghahn Books
• | Publication Date: Aug 01, 2024
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781805395423
• | ISBN-10: 1805395424