Central to all democratic systems is the ability of citizens to choose who holds executive power. To reduce the democratic-deficit in the EU, therefore, the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties give the European Parliament (EP) a vote on the European Council nominee for Commission President. The...

The notion of 'Administrative Authority' has several dimensions in EU law. From a functional perspective, administrative authority may be exercised according to three patterns: indirect administration by member states' governmental institutions - the typical Community pattern - direct...

This article provides a normative assessment of parliamentary representation in fields of differentiated integration in the European Union. Based on three criteria of legitimate democratic representation, autonomy, accountability and equality, we evaluate four alternative representation models....

The paper seeks to examine the phenomenon of populism in connection with the first EP elections in the Czech Republic (CZ). It aspires to answer the question whether the first EP elections can be described as populist and, if yes, then owing to which parties. It gives a basic overview of the...

This study analyses party group cohesion and patterns of defections of national party delegations from party group lines in the present European Parliament, using a total of 1,370 roll call votes. The study confirms previous findings according to which party groups in the EP show (surprisingly)...

This paper analyses the prominence, content and justifications of Euroscepticism as a form of EU legitimacy contestation. Support of and opposition to European integration have so far been mainly measured through the positions of political parties or citizens’ attitudes through public opinion...

This paper analyses the prominence, content and justifications of Euroscepticism as a form of EU legitimacy contestation. Support of and opposition to European integration have so far been mainly measured through the positions of political parties or citizens’ attitudes through public opinion...

The debates surrounding the European Union’s democratic deficit aren’t recent al all. There are authors who claim the existence of a democratic deficit, as well as other authors who dismantle, one by one, the arguments of the first ones. Through this paper I want to inventory the arguments...

The theme of this review is the democratic deficit in the institutional structures of the European Union with a case study of the European Parliament. I introduce the necessary notions of legitimacy, democracy, democratic deficit and present the arguments of some of the theorists in field....