Economisation and Dissensus over Liberal Democracy

Abstract Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union has sought to respond to the growing dissensus over the rule of law by deploying economic and budgetary instruments. In particular, the European Semester and the Recovery and Resilience Facility have been included into a comprehensive and more coherent rule of law discourse, with their scope encompassing certain rule of law principles. However, by anchoring rule of law compliance within the EU’s economic framework and objectives, this strategy contributes to the economisation of the rule of law—understood as the extension of the economic rationality to heretofore non-economic spheres and practices. The rule of law is no longer conceived primarily as a limitation on the exercise of public power; instead, it is instrumentalised to foster growth and is defined through the lens of economic theory. Indeed, these instruments concern those dimensions of the rule of law that are considered to be conducive to growth—such as the functioning of justice systems, the stability and predictability of the legal framework, and the effectiveness of anti-corruption frameworks. In doing so, the EU is sweeping the dissensus over the meaning of the rule of law “under the carpet” so to speak by reducing it to neoliberal theories.