Strategies for democratising multi-state systems and the European Union. JMWP No. 28.00, November 2000

Abstract

The issue of building democracy in a multi-state political system is examined in the first section of the paper. Three options for multi-state democracy are analysed in this section. The introduction of the three options in the history of the European integration process is analysed in the first section in relation with the debate on the reform of the European institutions. The second section analyses how the reform of the legislative process of the European Union has enhanced the role of the European Parliament and political parties in agreement with the third option of multi-state democracy. The third section examines the debate on the role of national parliaments in the European Union as an instrument of the first and second option of multi-state democracy. In the last section of the paper, the issue of the accountability of the EU executive is analysed as the crucial issue of the third option of democratisation of the European Union