Sovereignty and de-democratization in contemporary State: an analysis of the economic governance in the European Union

Throughout this article, we will explain the increasing trend towards de-democratization in contemporary states, with a particular focus on the European Union. To this end, we ask ourselves first, why despite the continuous calls to active citizenship and participation, mistrust towards institutions and the status quo keep growing. In explaining this phenomenon, we will use the method of articulation of the strategic relational approach, which entails a movement from an abstract-simple plane of analysis to a concrete-complex one by adding new planes of analysis. Thus, we will address firstly in abstract terms the issues of democracy, sovereignty, neoliberal governmentality and transformations on the state in order to explain more concretely the strengthening of the executive along with private bodies and the rise of governance, commercial arbitration and credit rating agencies. Our conclusion is that calls to active citizenship and participation, are part of neoliberal governmentality’s ‘grid of intelligibility’ so in practice, citizens’ power to make political powers act obedientially has been reduced whereas that of private actors has been reinforced.