The Democratic Backsliding and the European constitutional design in error. When will HOW meet WHY?
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The democratic backsliding is not just another crisis of governance. Rather it strikes at the very core of the initial bargain that brought states together. Therefore the constitutional redesign should go beyond legal and procedural patching and include renewed acknowledgement of the common values and interests and involving people, beyond states and markets
- History never stops. Constitutional design can become ineffective, invalid or obsolete – necessitating redesign to respond to current challenges;
- Democratic backsliding challenges the very core of European consensus, undermining shared values, checks and balances and supranational oversight binding the states together;
- Authoritarian constitutional capture of institutions entrenches dominant party or power holder by making future changes in power difficult;
- Diplomacy of indignation, taking for granted adherence to principles such as rule of law, judicial independence and constitutionalism, is ineffective without supranational political will enforceable by supranational legal tools, i.e. political branch working hand in hand with the Court;
- Rethinking of the constitutional consensus must include renewed acknowledgement of the values and shared interests and democratisation – so that the “ever closer Union” and its values are supported by citizens, not only by states and markets;
- Building people’s loyalty to values and principles of the Union requires a civic narrative, going beyond legal discourse and addressing the “WHY” to be met with the “HOW”;
- Evident challenges, such as those to liberal democracy itself, to respect for the law, to the Court’s oversight, to mutual trust, to post-communist transition, must be addressed and constitutional design recalibrated accordingly.
Full blog post can be found here: “The Democratic Backsliding and the European constitutional design in error. When will HOW meet WHY?”, Verfassungsblog, posted 2018/12/18.