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After the Crash: A Perspective on Multilevel E uropean Democracy
Author(s) -
Scharpf Fritz W.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
european law journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.351
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1468-0386
pISSN - 1351-5993
DOI - 10.1111/eulj.12127
Subject(s) - politics , democracy , crash , political economy , social capital , economics , capital (architecture) , capitalism , market integration , economic system , perspective (graphical) , political science , market economy , macroeconomics , law , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , history , programming language
From a social‐market perspective, E uropean integration has reduced the capacity of democratic politics to deal with the challenges of global capitalism, and it has contributed to rising social inequality. The article summarises the institutional asymmetries which have done most to constrain democratic political choices and to shift the balance between capital, labour and the state: the priority of negative over positive integration and of monetary integration over political and social integration. It will then explain why efforts to democratise E uropean politics will not be able to overcome these asymmetries and why politically feasible reforms will not be able to remove them. On the speculative assumption that the aftermath of a deep crisis might indeed create the window of opportunity for a political re‐foundation of E uropean integration, the concluding section will outline institutional ground rules that might facilitate democratic political action at both European and national levels.