The solution to the 'democratic deficit': A new type of governance for the European Union?

Without radically upsetting the institutional and political balance of the Union, the Commission's White Paper on Governance, published 25 July 2001, proposes a new basis for the EU's institutional legitimacy. However, this conceptual re-foundation gives rise to new and fundamental questions. To speak of governance within democracy is indeed unthinkable unless 'governance' is redefined as a form of government where the legitimacy of public action (as well as its efficiency) is made possible by a 'proceduralisation' of law. The failure to promote legitimacy with concepts borrowed from the vocabulary of the nation-state is nevertheless puzzling: should the 'participatory democracy' be considered a substitute for representative democracy? Even if this is not the case, it is uncertain whether 'participatory democracy' sufficiently embodies the democratic ideal, at least at the European Union level.