ABSTRACT
That there is a ‘democratic deficit’ at the heart of the European Union has become part of the conventional wisdom over the last decade or so. Most of the discussion of this deficit, however, takes place in rather narrow terms, where democracy is defined as ‘an institutional arrangement’ with a focus on government structures and their interrelationship. By the test of certain liberal democratic principles, the EU is then identified as deficient in a number of respects.
