To Democratize or to Protect? How the Response to Anti‐System Parties Reshapes the EU's Transnational Party System

Ludvig Norman

Journal of Common Market Studies, 2021, vol. 59, issue 3, 721-737

Abstract: This article studies how efforts to democratize the European Union's (EU) decision‐making procedures are reshaped by the growing influence of anti‐system parties in Europe. This new political landscape exacerbates a fundamental democratic dilemma for the EU: to either open up, and further democratize its institutions or to work to protect those institutions from the influence of anti‐systemic actors. The article analyses how political elites engage with this dilemma by studying a process unfolding from 2010 to 2019 through which reforms to the EU's transnational party system were introduced. Building on extensive interview and debate data the analysis demonstrates that, while a democratizing logic informed early stages of the process, a protective logic gradually became dominant. The article goes on to discuss the possible implications of this shift for the continued democratization of the EU and identifies this dimension in EU politics as a pertinent field for further study.

Date: 2021
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