Daniel Kelemen: Europe's Other Democratic Deficit

Join the School of Public Policy and the European Institute for a talk by R. Daniel Kelemen, Rutgers titled 'Europe's Other Democratic Deficit: National Authoritarianism in Europe's Democratic Union'
Thursday 14 December, 6:15-8pm

While critics have long argued that the EU suffers from a democratic deficit, recent episodes of backsliding on democracy and the rule of law in Hungary and Poland show that gravest democratic deficits in the EU are now found at the national level. Why does the EU, a union supposedly committed to democracy and the rule of law, tolerate these autocratic member governments? The answer lies in the realm of EU-level partisan politics. Today's EU is trapped in what I term an 'authoritarian equilibrium', with just enough partisan politics at the EU level to coddle local autocrats, but not enough to topple them.

R. Daniel Kelemen is Professor of Political Science and Law and Jean Monnet Chair in European Union Politics at Rutgers University, where he has also served as Director of the Center for European Studies. Kelemen is a leading expert on European Union politics, law and regulatory affairs and has published six books and more than eighty articles and book chapters on these topics. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Kelemen has advised policy makers in the US Congress and State Department and comments frequently on EU affairs in the media. Prior to Rutgers, Kelemen was Fellow in Politics, Lincoln College, University of Oxford. He has been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, visiting fellow in the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University, a Fulbright Fellow in European Union Studies at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. He was educated at Berkeley (A.B., Sociology, summa cum laude) and Stanford (M.A. & Ph.D., Political Science).

This event forms part of the School of Public Policy's 'Policy and Practice' series.

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