Deficyt demokracji w Unii Europejskiej? Instytucje Unii Europejskiej i poczucie wpływu na jej funkcjonowanie w świetle badań opinii publicznej

Abstract

The problem of the so-called democracy deficit in the European Union (EU) is one of the most interesting and complex problems as well as one of the most important challenges the EU faces at the beginning of the 21st Century. In the two previous articles on this subject (“Studia Europejskie”, No. 1/2007 and 2/2007) the Author addressed the question of certain theoretical aspects of democracy deficit in the EU and the EU’s institutional system operation in which democracy deficit reveals. The article deals with the question of the public opinion in the EU member states about democracy deficit. The Author presents (on the basis of the Eurobarometer’s data) and analyses research findings about such questions as general opinion on the membership in the EU in a given country or views on the problem of costs and benefits deriving from membership in the EU. In the second part the Author presents results of research on such questions as a degree to which people in member states trust the EU institutions and – for the sake of comparison – their domestic ones or whether people think that the EU imposes its views upon their country, whether they understand how the EU operates or how transparent it is.