Is the EU undemocratic?

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The EU referendum is fast approaching yet the debate seems to be as facile as ever. The central arguments for a Brexit, such as they are, appear to centre around immigration and the idea that we are being ruled by those we have had no say in electing. I will try and tackle the immigration issue later but right now I want to focus on the idea that we are being ruled from on high by people we didn’t vote for.  

What do we mean by democratic? The Oxford English Dictionary defines a democracy as,

“a system of government in which all the people of a state or polity . . . are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives to a parliament or similar assembly”

[source]

By this definition the EU parliament is broadly democratic as citizens of EU countries vote for MEPs to represent them in the parliament (I use the caveat 'broadly' because the definition requires 'all' yet there are age restrictions). There are 751 MEPs from 28 member countries (750 plus the president). A country may have as few as 6 or as many as 96 MEPs. This minimum means that a few countries have a disproportionate number of MEPs for their population size (the countries in blue in the graph below all have the minimum number of 6 MEPs), while currently only France has the maximum permissible number. As you can see, outside of those 4 countries that have the minimum number of MEPs, there is little difference in the number of people each MEP represents. Given such wildly differing population sizes, and the fact that countries cannot be represented by fractions of an MEP, the system is probably as fair as is possible [population sizes are from Wikipedia while MEP numbers are from the BBC]. 

EU countries by population and their number of MEPs per 10,000 people

 

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The idea at the centre of the complaint seems to be that if you don’t have someone you personally chose to represent you in the EU parliament then it’s not democracy. All those MEPs voted by other people get to make decisions that affect your life yet you have no say in who they are – it’s just not fair!

This seems like a legitimate complaint until you think about it for more than a couple of seconds and realise that being represented by people you may not have voted for is an inevitable part of a democracy.

I’m going to move this away from the EU for a moment and use an example from a bit closer to home. In the UK we have 650 MPs representing - depending on how you look at it - the 65 million inhabitants, or the 46 million eligible voters. Of those 46 million voters, almost 31 million actually voted in the last election and only 15 million voted for the person who became their MP [I analysed the Excel file at this site to produce these figures]. Looking at the data graphically shows this quite starkly,

2015 UK electorate by region and the number who voted for the MEP who won

In other words only 33% of voters can say they are represented by the person they want to represent them. I’m one of the 66% who can’t say that. Indeed, in the 4 general elections since I turned 18 I have never voted for someone who became my MP. Does that mean I’m not living in a democracy? No, of course not. It just means that I am out of step with fellow constituents, 53.5% of whom did vote for our MP in 2015 [data from the Excel file linked to above]. Would I like things to be different? Of course! Anyone would. Personally I would like to move away from first-past-the-post voting to something more representative such as proportional representation which is, in fact, the system we use to elect our MEPs [something I briefly described before the last election here]. Unfortunately for me, a change in voting method probably wouldn’t make much difference in my constituency, but who knows what may happen over time.

Going back to the EU, we have 73 MEPs representing 12 regions of the UK, yet despite people complaining that they are not represented, less than 36% bothered to go and vote for their MEP in the last election [Data were taken from the Full Report linked here]. 

Number of MEPs by region, their electorate and the number who participated in the 2014 EU elections

 

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This is a problem not just in the UK but across Europe, with a dismal 42.61% of the eligible electorate voted across the EU.

Turnout (%) for the EU countries, with the UK indicated in red

--> The system is democratic by design, whether or not people engage in it. But it is clearly preferable that more people engage. How many of those do didn’t vote are now complaining that the EU is undemocratic? They had a chance to participate and didn’t. So, to put it bluntly, they only have themselves to blame. And even if they did vote and just didn't get the MEP they wanted, well, sorry, we don't always get what we want. Part of being an adult is accepting that.

I appreciate that the problem that people have with the level of democracy in the EU isn't with engagement but with the central concept of people from other countries voting on issues that affect us. But it's a two-way street. Our MEPs vote on issues that affect people in other countries too. That's the whole point! One reason I wanted to compare with the UK parliament was to remind people that the vast majority of people voting in either parliament, EU or UK, are M[E]Ps they had no say in electing. That's just the way it goes. It is not a flaw of the EU, any more than it's a flaw of the UK parliament; nor is it a reason to leave. It's just what happens when you want representation based on geography. There may be other ways, possibly even better ways, of doing things but I've not heard any suggestions. What I do hear is a lot of people complaining about a system that is as fair as can be and pretending it is a fundamental flaw. It's not. So please stop saying it is.

EDIT 26.06.16 - changed the links to the Excel file and source website as I'd linked to the wrong thing somehow.