Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union

摘要: Concern about the EU’s ‘democratic deficit’ is misplaced. Judged against existing advanced industrial democracies, rather than an ideal plebiscitary or parliamentary democracy, EU legitimate. Its institutions are tightly constrained by constitutional checks and balances: narrow mandates, fiscal limits, super–majoritarian concurrent voting requirements separation of powers. The appearance exceptional insulation reflects subset functions it performs — central banking, adjudication, civil prosecution, economic diplomacy technical administration. These matters low electoral salience commonly delegated in national systems, for normatively justifiable reasons. On balance, redresses creates biases political representation, deliberation output.