What's Wrong with the European Union and How to Fix It, Simon Hix (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008), 228 pp., $70 cloth, $23 paper.

This short and highly readable book, which began life as a series of policy papers written for the UK government, presents a case for democratic reform of the European Union. Starting from the premise that the EU is “more necessary than ever,” Simon Hix shows how it can, and should, be improved. As the policy agenda has shifted from the creation of the internal market to the regulation of the market, diverging political views and interests mean that the EU integration has almost come to a halt; moreover, popular support for the EU is at an all-time low, partially because citizens do not know who in Brussels is to blame when they do not get the results they want. Hix argues that if the politics that play out behind closed doors in Brussels are not brought out in the open, the EU risks getting stuck in a decision-making rut, losing legitimacy with citizens, and deepening its democratic deficit. Rather than pretend that European integration is a technocratic matter, EU leaders, therefore, need to engage in public debate over policy and to hold open contests in the election (direct or not) of national representatives to EU institutions. The winners would then enjoy a legitimate mandate to govern and thereby break the policy gridlock.

The wished-for result would be a “government-opposition” type of politics—in which a broad coalition of like-minded politicians would be in charge for a limited term—similar to that of most liberal democracies. Hix is optimistic that the goal of “limited democratic politics” at the EU level is attainable because the preconditions for it already exist. Integration has produced winners and losers across Europe and, crucially, a left-right ideological division in a pan-European debate over the future of economic and social policy. Looking in detail at the structures and procedures of the three major institutions—the Commission, the Council, and the Parliament—Hix finds that their current setup allows for the emergence of a cross-institutional majority coalition to govern at the European level. To achieve this, he advocates such reforms as increased transparency in Council procedures, an open contest for a Commission president, and more powers to the majority group in the parliament. Finally, to the usual objections that without the existence of a demos the goal of democracy is moot, Hix answers that it is precisely in the competition over political power that a European demos will be formed.