Monday, May 27, 2019

Democracy Impaired in the E.U.: The State-Level Vortex

In interpreting exit polls released on May 26, 2019 on the E.U.’s Parliament election, The New York Times pointed to two issues, only one of which pertained to the federal level. “Observers looked to [the election] to gauge the popularity of the various anti-immigration, anti-elite, Euroskeptic parties across the union.”[i] Had the E.U. electorate focused on such a matter so central to the European Union itself, democracy at the federal level would have been nearly perfect. However, the encroachment of state-level politics in the federal election, the other point, contributed to the democratic deficit at the federal level. This takes away from the viability of the federal system itself.



1. Steven Erlanger, “European Election Results: The Mainstream Loses Ground,” The New York Times, May 26, 2019.