The Role of Direct Democracy in the European Union
Series
CESifo seminar series
ISBN
0-262-02566-3
Type
book section
Date Issued
2004-11-01
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Blankart, Charles B.
Mueller, Dennis C.
Abstract
In this paper, the introduction of direct-democratic decision-making in all EU decisions is considered when it is feasible without prohibitively increasing decision-making costs. We start with the contractarian argument that each constitution is a contract joining the citizens of a state and requires as such the explicit agreement of (a majority of) citizens. Thus, the future European Constitution as well as future changes of it should be decided by the European citizens. After a discussion of the pros and cons of direct democracy, the ability of direct democracy to help creating a European demos is discussed. Consequently, we propose a mandatory (required and binding) referendum on total and partial revisions of the European Constitution. In addition, we propose a constitutional initiative, a statutory and a general initiative as well as a fiscal referendum for financially important projects.
Language
English
Keywords
democracy
referenda
initiatives
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Book title
A Constitution for the European Union
Publisher
MIT Press
Publisher place
Cambridge, Mass.
Start page
203
End page
235
Pages
33
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
31416
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CESifowp1083.pdf
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Format
Adobe PDF
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