Hamburg-Vigoni Talks - #5 From White Paper to "Conference on the Future of Europe"
Since the referendum on Great Britain's exit from the EU, if not longer, the debate about the institutional future of the EU has been smoldering. Armin Hatje and Eva Heidbreder put together the most recent...
Are Referendums a simple cure for the EU’s democratic deficit?
"It is often argued that national referendums on EU matters can be a cure for the democratic deficit of the EU and its policies. But what can we learn from a country like Switzerland about how and when direct democracy works? Eva Thomann (University of Exeter), Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen (Universität Bern), and Eva G. Heidbreder (Universität Magdeburg) conclude that referendums in the EU usually lack the necessary institutional and administrative links between direct and representative decision-making to have legitimacy-enhancing effects."1
Referendums are not a simple cure for the EU’s democratic deficit.
Would you agree?
