By Richard Rose

This blog post was originally posted on the Oxford University Press.

In a symbolic gesture toward creating an ever closer Union, the EuropeanUnion conferred citizenship on everyone who was also a subject of one of its member states. However, the rights of European citizens are more like those of subjects of a the pre-1914 Germain Kaiser than of a 21^st century European democracy. Citizens have the right to vote for members of the European Parliament (EP) but this does not make the EU’s governors accountable as is the case in a normal parliamentary democracy. The result is a democratic deficit. Weiterlesen →