Inadequacy of political doctrine

We found over and over again that EU commissioners and the commission presidents prioritise a legalistic and technocratic conception of democracy: ‘Democracy without politics’. But democracy is much more than the rule of law and the separation of powers. Democracy is a normative and political response to political pluralism. It is about real alternative visions of society competing in a healthy public sphere. We need to think more broadly than judicial independence or the separation of powers — what we are experiencing is the dismantling of the democratic public sphere in several EU member states.  It is an autocracy crisis.