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41 J. Common Mkt. Stud. 1 (2003)

handle is hein.journals/jcmks41 and id is 1 raw text is: JCMS 2002 Volume 41. Number 1. pp. 1-13 De la d6mocratie en Europe: Old Concepts and New Challenges WESMENY European University Institute Abstract Since David Marquand coined his famous phrase 'democratic deficit' to describe the functioning of the European Community, the debate has raged about the extent and content of this deficit. However, little attention has been paid to the ambiguous na- ture of democracy both at the national and supranational levels. This paper argues that dissatisfaction with democracy has to do, at least for a substantial part, with the creeping expansion of constitutionalism and the parallel decline of popular impact on government. This phenomenon is often felt at the national plane and feeds out- bursts of populism. But it is even more acute at the European level, which combines weak popular input with the most sophisticated and developed forms of constitution- alism. This imbalance should be redressed both at a national level as well as in the EU, as a nascent polity. Introduction Citizens' lack of confidence in their democratic institutions is not new. Among the existing democratic systems there have always been, in some periods or places, manifestations of dissatisfaction or unhappiness with democracy. The 20-year period between the two world wars offers a particularly dramatic illustration: most of the new democracies failed to consolidate and most of them had to leave room for authoritarian or fascist regimes. Older democra- cies were also challenged by leftist social movements or extreme right and undemocratic parties. Even during the rosy period of the 'Trente glorieuses', dissatisfaction manifested itself in various forms: social movements of all kinds, especially amongst the young generation (May 1968), and even the use of violence and terrorism (in Italy and Germany in particular). However, dur- ing both the 1920s-30s and the post-war period, these manifestations of * This article is a revised version of the JCMS Annual Lecture, delivered on 12 April 2002 at the European University Institute in Fiesole near Florence. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Sreet, Malden, MA 02148, USA

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