The promotion of the European Citizens’ Initiative as a tool to tackle down citizen’s disaffection at public institutions

Abstract

The global crisis, which began in the financial sector in 2008, spread out its effects at an interterritorial level to all areas, and it has ended up affecting the pillars of a society that is increasingly dissatisfied with public Institutions and their political representatives. In this context, the European construction model is being debated among the defenders of direct participation mechanisms, as the maximum expression of citizen legitimacy; and the supporters of classical representative democracy. The European Citizens’ Initiative is presented as an intermediary instrument of a transnational nature, which empowers citizens to propose the adoption of a standard to the European Commission, which is an important novelty in the institutional framework and normative production.