IILJ Working Paper 2004/5 (Global Administrative Law Series)

Democratic Politics: Will the Globe Echo the E.U.?

Martin Shapiro

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Notions of deliberative democracy are much in vogue and currently being hijacked to legitimate non-democratic technocratic policy making in the European Union by a supposedly neutral and independent Eurocracy actually composed of persons in pursuit of strong policy preferences of their own. Such a situation is particularly likely to occur in transnational policy making regimes where typically direct electoral legitimation typically is lacking and there is a desire to shield decision making from “politics” which is seen as the particularistic demands of participating member states seeking unfair advantage.