A Pluralist Critique to the EU’s Response to Democratic Backsliding: beyond the ‘technocratic legalism’ of the European Commission

Much has been said about democratic backsliding within the EU, and the EU responses to it. The central aspect of the political debate has been so far anchored on technocratic appeals to the need for high quality information, on attention to the rule of law and judicial independence, and on the countries of Poland and Hungary. However, while the rule of law is a necessary condition for a democratic polity, and high quality information can help in the administration of democratic decisions, these frames are not sufficient for democratic governance and can undermine it. After introducing the article in Part 1, we develop an understanding of democracy that goes beyond technocracy and the rule of law in what constitutes our theoretical-normative framework in Part 2. Specifically, we focus on other conditions and features of democratic community such as freedom of speech, pluralist media, and a vibrant civil society that holds government to account. In part 3 we then analyse recent speeches given by European Commissioners in the context of democratic backsliding. Through a discourse analysis we illustrate our view that the Commission conceives democracy in a manner we label ‘technocratic legalism’, making, first, democracy almost equivalent to the rule of law and protection of human rights, and second, equating democracy to the quality of governance, especially in the context of having 'quality information'. This rather narrow understandings of democracy shape the EU’s responses to democratic backsliding, which are legal and technocratic (i.e. focused on correcting misinformation, and the quality of governing processes). While we do not take issue with the importance of rights-protection, the independence of the judicial process, or the idea of citizens having 'quality information', we argue that a fuller, healthier, and normatively more attractive conception of democracy also encompasses important non-legal and non-technocratic dimensions. The EU pivoting towards a more holistic approach which includes more attention to political pluralism, and the vibrancy of civil society and media, could therefore not only be plausibly more effective to address democratic backsliding, but would also be normatively preferable.