Civic Invitation: Democratic Backsliding & Prodemocratic Partisanship in the EU

Current arguments and strategies against democratic backsliding within some EU states have up until now focused on negative sanctions (e.g., financial conditionality, or restrictions of membership or political participation) or passive measures (dialogue and monitoring). This article presents and defends an unexplored positive measure that should be included in the set of strategies for EU member states resisting and/or reverting democratic backsliding. The measure consists in inviting individual members of democratically backsliding states to obtain the franchise, as well as other meaningfully related political rights and liberties in EU member countries committed to democracy. We argue that such an invitational measure is, in some respects, better suited to express EU states’ commitment to democracy than existing negative or passive measures, and connect the argument to current debates on the practical value of the right to vote. We consider the legal ramifications this invitational strategy, and contend that, far from undermining Art. 4 TEU principle of sincere cooperation and the definition of Union citizenship in Art. 10 TFEU, a properly circumscribed civic invitation scheme would be a coherent means to further cooperation and defend Union citizenship. Finally, we consider and reject two counter-arguments – the first based on the idea that civic invitation would constitute impermissible interference in the domestic affairs of another state, and the second that civic invitation could exacerbate backsliding by contributing to the exodus of people committed to liberal democracy from backsliding states (an analogue of the “brain drain” argument).