Demokratins ansikten - En normativ studie av Europeiska unionens demokratiska förutsättningar

Sammanfattning: The European Union is in many ways a huge and vast organization. With an increasing number of members and a deeper cooperation in many areas, the EU constantly needs to change to adapt to new opportunities and challenges. But in parallel to this development there is an entirely different debate, one that concerns the democratic legitimacy of the cooperation as a whole. The European Union is unique in its design and that means that large parts of the constitutional foundations that the EU stands on are tested for the first time. One example of this is the Council of the European Union, which is one of those foundations and is both an executive and legislative authority. The European Commission is another, this is a institution that initiates and executes legislation. The Commission is not elected on a national or European level and is very technical and bureaucratic in its nature. These institutions are among those criticized and have been called undemocratic. In my essay I ask myself whether the EU is democratic or not. On a basis consisting of democratic theory and in the treaties of the EU, I come to my conclusions and find out that it depends. My method of choice is normative and evaluating. I also look deeper into the debate regarding the democratic deficit as a source of inspiration leading to my further analysis.