The Amsterdam Treaty seeks to bring the European Union closer to the people of Europe by aligning the institutions closer to conceptions of subsidiarity and democracy. Subsidiarity is made operational in a Protocol to the Amsterdam Treaty. This "Amsterdam Subsidiarity" regards Community action...

The "great question", as John Locke put it, is not whether there should be political power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it. For domestic institutions, these three questions of normative political theory may well be separable and ordered as Locke indicated. However, the...

What powers should small states hold in the European Union? Currently small states play important roles within the federal elements of the Union, but their future status is at stake. In a federation there are two tiers of government: a central unit and regional sub-units. Each tier enjoys final...

Giandomenico Majone and Andrew Moravcsik have argued that the EU does not suffer a ‘democratic deficit.' We disagree about one key element: whether a democratic polity requires contestation for political leadership and over policy. This aspect is an essential element of even the ‘thinnest'...

DELIBERATIVE democracy has traditionally been defined in opposition to self-interest, to bargaining and negotiation, to voting, and to the use of power. Our assessment differs in two ways from the traditional one. First, we contend that self-interest, suitably constrained, ought to be part of...

The European Union is a new subject for theories of legitimacy, posing fundamental questions to the established concepts and principles of democratic theory. General compliance and popular acceptance and respect for European law is at stake. The volume addresses the main challenges of the...

Giandomenico Majone and Andrew Moravcsik have argued that the EU does not suffer a 'democratic deficit'. We disagree about one key element: whether a democratic polity requires contestation for political leadership and over policy. This aspect is an essential element of even the 'thinnest'...