democratic deficit

English

First used by the Young European Federalists in their Manifesto in 1977.

democratic deficit (plural democratic deficits)

(politics) A situation when ostensibly democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments) are seen to be falling short of fulfilling the principles of the parliamentary democracy in their practices or operation where representative and linked parliamentary integrity becomes widely discussed.
- 2011, John Lanchester, Once Greece goes…:
  The euro was launched with a fundamental democratic deficit, which didn’t trouble the European elite behind it because they had come to believe in a version of manifest destiny.

situation in which principles of parliamentary democracy are not fulfilled