Dissatisfaction with democracy in the EU and home country 2024

One of the key issues which has driven discontent within the European Union over the period since the great recession and the Eurozone crisis has been dissatisfaction with how democracy works. Citizens of many European countries have expressed that they feel they have no real input into political processes, that political parties tend to represent elite interests rather than their own, and that decision are often made by technocrats rather than through democratic deliberation.

Democracy in the EU

The topic of democracy in the EU is complicated, as the process of European integration means that member states have pooled their sovereignty together, allowing certain areas of policy to be under the jurisdiction of central EU institutions, such as monetary policy with the ECB and competition policy with the European Commission. This has led to claims by some that there is a 'democratic deficit' in the EU, as citizens are not directly involved in decision making, although the elected heads of member states are often considered the most powerful actors within the union. Since the 2010s, many countries have experienced waves of support for populist parties, both left and right wing, who have sought to capitalize on this discontent.

East-West divides

Feelings of discontent with democracy vary widely between countries and regions. Ireland, Luxembourg and the Nordic member states all show low levels of dissatisfaction with democracy, with dissatisfaction with democracy at the EU level being higher than with democracy at home. In fact, this is a trend which can be seen in many member states which joined the EU before 1995, where, on average, over a third of respondents dissatisfied with EU democracy, while dissatisfaction with domestic political procedures is less strong. This trend is drastically reversed in member states who have joined the union since 2004, notably in post-communist countries such as Lithuania or Latvia, where the gap between dissatisfaction with democracy at home and in the EU is close to 20. These countries transitioned from autocratic rule under the communist parties of their countries to democracy less than fifteen years before joining the EU, and many are still experiencing issues with corruption and the rule of law today. Discontent in these countries is more aimed at their own domestic systems rather than the EU, with half of respondents not being satisfied with their domestic democracy. An exception to this is Greece, which joined the EU in 1981, and has, together with Croatia, the highest dissatisfaction with their domestic political system out of all countries, at 66 percent of respondents.