What is a Democratic Audit?

It is commonly remarked that the European Union (EU) is a political system in democratic deficit. But what is the nature of that deficit? Is it offset by any democratic achievements? Do any democratic qualities or deficiencies pertain to the EU’s political system as a whole, or to some parts of it more than others? Does the Union perform worse or better in relation to some attributes of democratic rule than others? Does it even make much sense to debate the presence or absence of a democratic deficit at all? Do answers to these questions vary with which model of democracy is used, and, if so, does that mean those who ask ‘how democratic is the EU?’ need also to have some clear idea of why they believe the EU ought to be democratic in the first place? These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.