The Asymmetrical Political Ethics of the European Parliament: Responding to Undemocratically Elected Representatives from Backslid(ing) EU Member States
本文探讨欧洲议会议员如何应对来自民主倒退成员国的非民主当选同僚，提出一种基于不对称义务的第三条道路，即民主当选议员应战略性地对待非民主当选者，并为其选民提供替代代表。
ABSTRACT This paper offers a novel, productive approach to political ethics in the European Parliament (EP), assuming some of its members (MEPs) are elected undemocratically in member states severely affected by democratic backsliding. It explores the normative foundations of how other MEPs should deal with undemocratically elected MEPs here and now, complementing long‐term institutional reform proposals to counter backsliding. Criticising a cordon sanitaire approach to undemocratically elected MEPs, whilst rejecting that all MEPs have equal standing, the paper grounds a principled third way. First, it offers an account of individual representatives' (rather than EU political institutions') legitimacy and authority and shows how this account justifies asymmetrical duties vis‐à‐vis democratically versus undemocratically elected MEPs. Second, the paper draws action‐guiding implications of this asymmetry for how democratically elected MEPs should relate to fellow MEPs. They should presumptively defer to and cooperate with other democratically elected MEPs, whereas they can and should deal with undemocratically elected ones strategically, as instrumentally necessary to discharge their own duties as representatives but also to protect the legitimacy and authority of the EP. Third, the paper argues that democratically elected MEPs should provide surrogate representation to voters of undemocratically elected MEPs but not to voters of other democratically elected MEPs.