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VOL. 6, ISSUE 2 (2024)
Rule of law crisis and democratic deficit in the EU: After more than a decade of the Lisbon treaty and electoral reform
Authors
Prem Bahadur Manjhi
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate it by
critically evaluating the course and present situation of the rule of law and
democratic legitimacy in the EU post-Lisbon Treaty under consideration both
institutional changes and recent electoral developments. It will add to the discussion
by providing a revised and combined view of the structural difficulties still
present as well as the success of EU-level reactions. The research addresses
the following: How far has the Lisbon Treaty corrected the democratic shortfall
in EU institutions and governance? Particularly in the cases of Poland and
Hungary, how successful have EU institutions been in reacting to the rule of
law crises in member states? Since the Lisbon Treaty, how have electoral
changes either strengthened or degraded democratic legitimacy in the EU? Do
structural restrictions still exist post-Lisbon, or has the European
Parliament's influence been greatly enhanced in practice? As of June 2024, how
do these problems affect public confidence in and involvement in EU-level democracy?
This paper also investigates whether the Lisbon Treaty has made limited
progress in lowering the democratic deficit due of persistent intergovernmental
dominance and weak enforcement of democratic norms or EU rule of law mechanisms
(e.g., Article 7 TEU, the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation) politically
constrained and inconsistently applied. Notwithstanding official improvements
in electoral processes, it also contends that electoral reforms since 2009 have
only slightly enhanced transparency but failed to generate a meaningful EU-wide
democratic identity. Furthermore, citizens' confidence in EU institutions
remains fragile due of perceived democratic disconnection and institutional
opacity. After the Methodology and Research Design comes a qualitative,
multi-method political and legal analysis combining case study of Hungary and
Poland (for rule of law crisis) with document analysis. Data is gathered from
main sources including EU treaties (Lisbon Treaty, TEU, TFEU), European
Commission communications, European Parliament resolutions, CJEU rulings,
Official election data and reports and the Secondary Sources including academic
literature, journal articles, policy papers, Reports from think tanks (e.g.,
CEPS, Bruegel), NGO reports (e.g., Freedom House, Amnesty, Transparency
International), analysis of EU elections regarding participation, transparency,
and Spitzenkandidaten impact.
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Pages:73-81
How to cite this article:
Prem Bahadur Manjhi "Rule of law crisis and democratic deficit in the EU: After more than a decade of the Lisbon treaty and electoral reform". International Journal of Sociology and Political Science, Vol 6, Issue 2, 2024, Pages 73-81
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