The lecture will be a reflection on the essay by Yves Mény 'De la démocratie en Europe', published in 2003, and will look back at what has changed and what has remained the same over the past two decades.
2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the Robert Schuman Centre and the lecture will also be the beginning of a series of initiatives aimed to celebrate the achievements of these decades as well as look at the future ahead. You can also follow us on social media by the hashtag #30SchumanCentre.
Abstract from the 2003 essay:
"Since David Marquand coined his famous phrase ‘democratic deficit’ to describe the functioning of the European Community, the debate has raged about the extent and content of this deficit. However, little attention has been paid to the ambiguous nature of democracy both at the national and supranational levels. This paper argues that dissatisfaction with democracy has to do, at least for a substantial part, with the creeping expansion of constitutionalism and the parallel decline of popular impact on government. This phenomenon is often felt at the national plane and feeds outbursts of populism. But it is even more acute at the European level, which combines weak popular input with the most sophisticated and developed forms of constitutionalism. This imbalance should be redressed both at a national level as well as in the EU, as a nascent polity."
This event will be livestreamed.