Saving European Democracy: British Debates on the Founding of a European Political Union in 1948-49

This paper explores how and for what political purposes was the concept of European democracy used in British debates before and after the first postwar meeting of European leaders in The Hague Congress in May 1948. It illustrates that the British debates regarding the future of post-Second World War Europe manifested close ties with the continental discussions about federalism and intergovernmentalism. While analysing the debate in the House of Commons in 1948 on the creation of a European federation, the paper highlights the political argumentation regarding ‘democracy’ being closely connected with the concepts of unity and empire. The idea of federalism was not only referred to in terms of the future of Europe, but also had past connotations to the nineteenth-century discussions over safeguarding the British Empire. The main argument is that, ultimately, a rift inside the Labour Party in government over liberal internationalism between “functionalists”, “federalists” and “fundamentalists” contributed to the lack of British consensus on European federalism.