Demoicracy and Active Citizenship in the European Union

Abstract

　The European Union （EU） has experienced consecutive crises, such as the Euro crisis, Brexit, and the migration crisis, which have increased the necessity to search for a proper theory of democracy to convince EU citizens of its reliability. Proponents of demoicracy argue that while supranationalists and intergovernmentalists have different assumptions about the possibility of a European demos, these opposing arguments share a similar concept of demos which is unitary and has common characteristics. Instead, demoicracy focuses on the national demos and proposes a different understanding of EU democracy based on the interactions and cooperations among demoi sharing the European institutions. However, demoicratic theories do not give much attention to citizens’ participation, notwithstanding the recent developments in citizens’ participation in the EU. In this paper, I explore the importance of citizens’ participation and active citizenship from the perspective of demoicratic theories. I argue that if non-domination, a core normative principle of demoicracy, is taken seriously, the situations of mobile EU citizens and Third Country Nationals （TCNs） in the national societies should be analysed. Demoicracy needs a demoicratic ethos nurtured by active citizenship through participation to ensure non-domination. The EU experiments on citizens’ participation seem to have some potential for nurturing demoicratic ethos as active citizenship as a practice. In this context, the CoFoE could be considered an important device; its European Citizens’ Panels and national citizens’ panels, in particular, deserve to be promoted as they gather ordinary citizens by random sampling and provide opportunities to exchange perspectives on EU affairs. Based on the experience of the CoFoE, the local, national, and European citizens’ panels―which involve EU citizens who are, at least sometimes, mobile―and TCNs, should be institutionalised and interlinked systematically and regularly connected with the plenary settings providing conclusions, recommendations or proposals as one potential instrument fostering demoicratic ethos.