Populisms and sovereignisms versus European Union? Reflections on crisis of democracy and crisis of the european integration process

Abstract

Populism and sovereignism have now become the almost inevitable landing place of recurring reflections on the crisis of democracy and of the European integration process. Often considered as two sides of the same phenomenon and usually used in a derogatory sense, these two terms are however characterized by uncertain definition and ambiguity. For this reason, it seems far more useful, rather than an often uncritical and misleading use of the two neologisms, try to understand what lies behind the crisis of contemporary democracies and of the process of European integration.

In the essay the Author comes to the conclusion that some degenerative phenomena, that today are easily visible, are the sign of the need for space and listening to the “peoples” and European citizens and therefore of the urgency to re-establish the long-interrupted threads of a necessary dialogue between the people — with their needs — and institutions and national and european parties, which are asked to provide adequate answers. However, this dialogue, that appears to be lacking in the European Union due to certain “genetic” limits that distinguish it, can be established only by placing citizens at the center of the decision-making processes, both through the enhancement of participatory tools and through valid institutional changes, aimed in particular to bring the decisions back into institutions characterized by accountability towards “sovereigns”. 

Summary:
1. Introduction. 2. What are populism and sovereignty? In search of their possible meanings and the pretensions behind them. 2.1. Populism. 2.2 Sovereignty. 2.3 Populism, sovereignty and democratic crisis. 3. The crisis of the European integration process between social inequalities, the democratic deficit and the lack of identity. 4. Reasons to stay together. The people, sovereignty and “good politics”. European Union, subsidiarity and participatory democracy: in search of answers to the crisis of the European integration process.