Dissensus over Liberal Democracy and Democratic Arrhythmias in the EU

The chapter analyses the functioning of EU representative democracy, interpreted, consistently with Article 10 TEU, as encompassing both EU as well as national dynamics. The chapter shows that, on the one hand, the national and European dimensions of EU representative democracy – and thus of elections – act as multipliers of opportunities to represent an increasingly pluralistic society and for expressing dissensus, also over liberal democracy. On the other hand, EU decision-making tends to rely mainly on the executives, expanding their role without adequately involving oppositions nor channelling their often-dissenting voices, and so encouraging the development of more radical forms of dissensus. National electoral cycles are normally not synchronised, either among themselves or with the EP elections, and this increases the risks of disconnection and ‘arrhythmias’ in the actual functioning of EU representative democracy. The result of this is that the mechanisms of political responsibility, theoretically the basis of contemporary democracies, are endangered and not able to work properly either at EU or national levels: an example is represented by the practice of appointing leaders recently defeated in national elections to ‘top EU jobs’. The chapter closes by arguing that these ‘arrhythmias’ further encourage dissensus over liberal democracy: they disrupt majority–opposition dynamics, weaken opposition forces, and fuel populism and Euroscepticism.