Brösel-Politiken: Is Democracy Working in the UK and across Europe?

Adopting Germany's ‘Brösel-Brücken’ (crumbling bridges) crisis as a metaphor for ‘Brösel-Politiken’ (broken politics), this paper examines whether democracy is functioning effectively in the UK and across Europe. The thesis posits that, while democratic machinery operates technically well according to indices like those of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and V-Dem, widespread citizen dissatisfaction reveals analytical shortfalls in conventional frameworks, particularly in recognizing collective national interests. The core argument critiques the EIU's five ‘deficits’ (equality, party, choice, ideas, citizenship) as asymmetrically focused on atomized individuals, neglecting a nationality-based demos (or ‘demos of the nation’) emphasising high-trust cohesion and demographic sustainability.
Drawing on academic sources (e.g., Ford & Jennings on cleavages; Koenig-Archibugi on demos conceptions) and UK/European surveys, it proposes a new ‘National Interest deficit’ category to remedy this normative bias, promoting balanced analysis that would improve explanatory value especially in respect of the rising populist movements on TAN and GAL axes. In conclusion, introducing this category enhances explanatory power, elites are advised to embrace national solidarity and challenger parties urged to prepare for competent governance. Policy recommendations include EIU adoption of the new democratic deficit category, with further research on how it might be made operational in practice.

Paper by Stephen Balogh, Chairman of the UK’s Social Democratic Party, Visiting Fellow at MCC