Schmidt Publishes OpEd on State of European Democracy
Vivien Schmidt, Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Europe, published a recent Op-Ed in which she discusses how the recent British vote for an exit from the European Union highlighted problems with democracy across Europe.
Schmidt published the July 13, 2016 article, entitled “European Democracy in a Parlous State,” on The Cipher Brief.
From the text of the article:
Democracy in Europe is in a parlous state at the moment. The British vote for exit (Brexit) from the European Union (EU) has highlighted deep-seated problems with democracy at both the EU and national levels. But it would be a mistake to think that this means the EU is undemocratic, or that Brexit spells the break-up of the EU. Rather, it shows that in the EU, even more so than in the U.S., politics has become increasingly volatile as citizens punish political elites for gridlocked governing processes and policies that don’t work.
The Brexit referendum was dominated by a populist campaign focused on immigration in order to “take back control” from the EU, which was depicted as an over-regulated, undemocratic superstate.
You can read the entire article here.
Prof. Schmidt is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at Boston University. Her research focuses on European political economy, institutions, democracy, and political theory. She has published ten books, over 100 scholarly journal articles or chapters in books, and numerous policy briefs and comments, most recently on the Eurozone crisis. Her current work focuses on democratic legitimacy in Europe, with a special focus on the challenges resulting from the Eurozone crisis, and on methodological theory, in particular on the importance of ideas and discourse in political analysis (discursive institutionalism). You can learn more about her here.