ABSTRACT
The European integration project started as an elitist one, without explicit approval by the public. This was a necessary exclusion of public opinion, as the post-World War II European public was highly emotional and potentially hostile to cooperation with Germany. As Charles Goerens put it: 1
What would have happened if we had decided whether or not the Federal Republic of Germany could join the ECSC by referendum? In the 1950s, the Luxembourgish public would have rejected it. That might have been the worst political decision taken by our country.
This elitist project has delivered what it promised – a peaceful Europe. However, as a side effect, it created a democratic deficit (Marquand 1979). The European Union (EU) has long been a non-issue in European democracies, based on a ‘permissive consensus’ (Inglehart 1971; Lindberg and Scheingold 1970; Norris, 1997). The member-state governments negotiated complex, technical EU policies on behalf of their citizens, while the public only tacitly approved these developments. Even though the EU acquired more governing capacities, European citizens continued to be detached from the integration project. The deepening process has accelerated significantly since the late 1980s. Attempting to boost the Union's legitimacy, some member states sought to ratify these steps by using direct democracy. Yet several of these referendums rejected the treaties and shocked Europe. Rising Euroscepticism since the 1990s has shown that the tacit approval of the public has come to an end, and that the permissive consensus has collapsed.