A Democratic Audit of the European Union (One Europe or Several?)

A Democratic Audit of the European Union provides a systematic assessment of democracy in the EU against clearly defined criteria. Christopher Lord offers a double challenge to generalizations about a democratic deficit in the EU. On the one hand, it shows that standards of democratic performance in the EU may vary across Union institutions and decision-making processes. On the other hand, it shows that they can vary across key dimensions of democratic governance, including citizenship, rights, participation, representation, responsiveness, transparency and accountability. This path-breaking book adapts to the case of the European Union a method of democracy assessment first used by Stuart Weir and David Beetham in their Democratic Audit of the United Kingdom. The result is to throw down a double challenge to generalizations about a democratic deficit in the European Union. On the one hand, the book shows how standards of democratic performance can vary across Union institutions and decision-making processes. On the other hand, it shows just how far in the EU arena they can vary across different dimensions of democratic governance, including citizenship, rights, participation, representation, responsiveness, transparency and accountability