ABSTRACT
Although today’s European Union began as an economic community, it has increasingly evolved into a political union. The Treaties of Amsterdam and Maastricht were particularly important for this development. The EU sees itself as a union of democratic states and characterizes its own institutional order as democratic. The constitutional draft clearly expresses the fundamental signifi cance democracy plays in the EU. In fact, a quotation from Thucydides comes before the preamble, “Our Constitution … is called democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the greatest number.” Article 2 of the draft continues to defi ne EU basic values, saying that democracy belongs among the core values of the EU: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.” The constitutional draft further specifi es the EU’s conception toward a particular form of democracy. It sees itself as a union of representative democracies and also endorses elements of a participatory democracy in which the inclusion of civil society is emphasized (Conference of Representatives 2004). In the fi rst section of this chapter, we reconstruct the EU’s understanding of democracy in greater detail. We then analyze the extent to which current and future EU citizens hold democratic values. Finally, we attempt to explain the differences in democratic beliefs.
