National parliaments and the politicization of European integration

Discussion of the democratic strengths or, more usually, weaknesses of the EU tends to focus on the degree of democracy that is available or possible at the EU level. Such thinking reflects a certain neo-functionalist logic that has governed much scholarly writing about the relationship between EU integration and democracy. It assumes that enhanced competences for EU institutions potentially create a democratic deficit at the European level that can only be filled by enhancing to an equal degree the democratic features of those same bodies, most especially by increasing the powers of the European Parliament (EP). The articles in this special issue take a different tack that challenges that assumption. They focus on what has been called the democratic disconnect between the domestic democratic institutions of the member states and the EU, rather than a democratic deficit in the operation of EU institutions. Consequently, the contributors look at how EU policymaking might be authorized by, and rendered more responsive and accountable to, the citizens of the member states through EU affairs and policymaking figuring more prominently in their domestic democratic processes, with National Parliaments (NPs) playing a key role as mechanisms of democratic reconnection.-- The politicization of European integration: National parliaments and the democratic disconnect / Richard Bellamy and Sandra Kröger -- Beyond a constraining dissensus: The role of national parliaments in domesticating and normalising the politicization of European integration FREE / Sandra Kröger and Richard Bellamy -- From constraining to catalysing dissensus? The impact of political contestation on parliamentary communication in EU affairs / Katrin Auel, Olga Eisele and Lucy Kinski -- National parliaments in the European Union: Moving towards more 'cooperative' institutions? / Carina Sprungk -- The politicization of interparliamentary relations in the EU: Constructing and contesting the 'Article 13 Conference' on economic governance / Ian Cooper -- Parliamentary scrutiny and partisan conflict in the Euro crisis. The case of the German Bundestag / Arndt Wonka and Sascha Göbel -- The politicization of EU affairs in the Finnish Eduskunta: Conflicting logics of appropriateness, party strategy or sheer frustration? / Tapio Rauni