Abstract
Although the ratification of the European Constitution has not yet been successful, it is still the attempt to design a democratic system that the EU has ever tried. This essay focuses on Article 46.4., which provides that no less than one million citizens coming from a significant number of Member States may invite the Commission to submit appropriate proposals on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Constitution. This paper tries to analyze how this new form of citizens' participation could contribute toward enhancing the democratic legitimacy of the EC compared with the other traditional forms, that is, the Economic and Social Committee (ESC) and informal lobbying for the European Commission.
This paper is divided into three sections. First, this paper surveys the theories to grip and conceptualize legislative processes in the EU/EC which is often described as sui generis polity. As a result, this paper is based on multilevel network governance as analytical framework. According to this policy networks are formed taking in both governmental and non-governmental actors, and the actors who don't have beneficial resources are excluded from these networks.
Second, the notion of democratic legitimacy in the EC should be defined before analyzing the significance of Citizens' Initiative. This paper indicates that the conventional EU studies have had a tendency to discuss this subject only from “in-put” or “by the people” theory. This paper explains the importance of considering democratic legitimacy from “out-put” or “for the people” theory as well. In other words, it is also important to seriously consider how citizens could get intimately involved in the process of drafting bills by the European Commission in which numerous actors formally and informally access the policy networks.
Finally, from that point of view, each traditional form of citizens' participation is surveyed in order to specify how well a Citizens' Initiative provides chances for the people to participate. The ESC has had a major problem of proportional representation. Not everyone can successfully lobby, nevertheless the European Commission is quite open to lobbyists. In conclusion, this paper tries to show that a Citizens' Initiative would be more user-friendly and that it could contribute to enhance the democratic legitimacy of the EC in a sense that more people can participate in the legislative processes.
