Countering Democratic Backsliding by EU Member States: Constitutional Pluralism and ‘Value’ Differentiated Integration

Constitutional pluralists tend to argue that a more confederal organisation of the EU produces a system of mutual checks and balances that prevents one member state dominating another, not least by allowing for a degree of differentiated integration. Such arrangements have been criticised for their inefficiency. However, more recently a further concern has been raised that they may help legitimise the claims of democratic backsliding states that ‘illiberal’ forms of democracy offer a valid form of differentiation from the acceptance of liberal democratic, rule of law norms. As a result, we seem confronted by a democratic and pluralist constitutional dilemma. How far, if at all, can it be legitimate (or coherent) for a member state to appeal to democracy and pluralism at the EU level in order to deny them both at the domestic level?