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24 - Democratic Challenges since Maastricht

from Democracy and Legitimacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2023

By
Wouter Wolfs
Edited by
Mathieu Segers  and
Steven Van Hecke
Mathieu Segers
Affiliation:
Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands
Steven Van Hecke
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
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Summary

The Treaty of Maastricht signified an end to the permissive consensus that had characterised the first decades of the European integration project: the European Union (EU) as a political issue not only became more salient, but also aroused more public discontent. From the perspective of the political elite, the 1990s were a decade of optimism focused on deepening and widening the European project, with, for example, the imminent introduction of the euro and the EU enlargement with central and eastern European countries. At the level of the general public, European integration became increasingly contested, and claims about a ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU became ubiquitous. Although the Maastricht Treaty was not the starting point,1 it substantially amplified the democratic debates about the EU.

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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the European Union , pp. 673 - 700
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Recommended Reading

Cornell, A. J. and Goldoni, M. (eds.). National and Regional Parliaments in the EU-Legislative Procedure Post-Lisbon: The Impact of the Early Warning Mechanism (London, Bloomsbury, 2017).Google Scholar
Greenwood, J. ‘The European Citizens’ Initiative: Bringing the EU Closer to Its Citizens?’, Comparative European Politics 17, no. 6 (2019): 940–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Héritier, A., Meissner, K. L., Moury, C. and Schoeller, M. G.. European Parliament Ascendant: Parliamentary Strategies of Self-Empowerment in the EU (New York, NY, Springer International, 2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hix, S. What’s Wrong with the European Union and How to Fix It (Cambridge, MA, Polity Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Müller, J.-W. ‘Should the EU Protect Democracy and the Rule of Law inside Member States?’, European Law Journal 21, no. 2 (2015): 141–60.Google Scholar
Van Hecke, S. (lead author). ‘Reconnecting European Political Parties with European Union Citizens’, International IDEA Discussion Paper (2018), www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/reconnecting-european-political-parties-with-european-union-citizens.pdf.Google Scholar
Wolfs, W. European Political Parties and Party Finance Reform: Funding Democracy? (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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