ABSTRACT
As the European Union creates it own rules and institutions, as it becomes more important in everyday policymaking, in short, as it becomes more like a domestic polity than a traditional international organization, the issue of democracy becomes more central. Outcomes in markets are more likely to be judged as "correct" results of individual merits and resources than outcomes in other settings. Changes in the international trade environment involved an absolute expansion of imports and exports, an increase of both in relation to gross domestic product, and an increase in the ratio of trade within the region to total trade. In mid-1965, French President Charles de Gaulle initiated the "Empty Chair Crisis" by instructing French ministers to boycott all Council meetings. "Comitology" refers to the labyrinthine network of committees, usually composed of experts from the member states' national administrations, that supervises the European Commission in the exercise of its delegated powers of implementation.
