The European Union and its Issue with Democracy: A Closer Look at the Irish Rejection of the Lisbon Treaty

21 Pages Posted: 22 Jul 2018

Date Written: June 29, 2018

Abstract

On 13 June 2008, Irish voters plunged the European Union (EU) into yet another crisis; simply put, they voted “No” when they were expected to have voted “Yes”. The vote concerned yet another European Treaty, this time the Lisbon Treaty, and effectively the votes of X Irish citizens has forced the EU twenty-seven member block comprising X million people to put on hold the supposedly vital institutional reform aimed at making the EU a stronger player on the global stage. It is no exaggeration to say that the vote has plunged the EU into turmoil and the treaty’s provisions, which were meant to come into force at the beginning of 2009, must now be put on hold. It is contended that the Irish “No” is symptomatic of a far greater problem at the heart of the EU, namely the perceived democratic deficit created by its institutional organization and that continued attempts by EU leaders to foist the Treaty on its unconvinced citizenry has only aggravated and polarized anti-EU sentiment leading to the alienation of an increasingly disenchanted EU public. It is proposed to first consider the role of the Lisbon Treaty before considering the effect of the Irish “No” vote on the future direction of the Union.

Keywords: European Union, Lisbon Treaty, Ireland, Democracy

Suggested Citation

Griffin, Patrick B., The European Union and its Issue with Democracy: A Closer Look at the Irish Rejection of the Lisbon Treaty (June 29, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3205274 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3205274

Patrick B. Griffin (Contact Author)

Université Paris 12 ( email )

Paris
France

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
37
Abstract Views
345
PlumX Metrics