Demokratia ilman kansaa : EU:n legitimiteetin lähteistä

Författare

• Mikko Jakonen
• Paul-Erik Korvela

Abstract

In addition to the well-known democratic deficit of the EU there is, allegedly, a “demos-deficit” as well. Many of the attributes of “the people” of Europe are missing, it is claimed, and thus the building of democracy understood as people’s power is in vain. We argue that the “no-demos claim” is in some respect misleading. It is, in fact, based on a strange conflation of demos and ethnos, and it does overlook the way representation actually produces the subject to be represented. In the article, a distinction is made between the fictitious political people and the actual population. Comparing present practices and problems with classical political theory offers rather novel insights to the problem of EU’s democracy. Using especially the theories of Aristotle and Thomas Hobbes we arrive at the conclusion that democracy does not need “people” understood as a pre-political unit but, instead, can rely on a more contractual view of creating the common. The “common” that is allegedly missing in Europe can also be found in common future – there is no need to turn to history as the source of common identity, history and destiny. We argue that the EU should not be measured with the yardstick of the nation-states because it can be a totally new type of political community.