European Multilingualism and Democracy: Implementing a Multilingual Language Regime Against Citizens’ Preferences?

Much of the debate opposing defenders of a multilingual language regime for the European Union and those arguing in favour of establishing English as lingua franca on the European level has been framed in reference to different theories of democracy: while for the former emphasize individual citizens’ right to democratic participation in their own language, the latter consider the existence of a shared language of communication as precondition for the emergence of a democratic public sphere on the European level.

Our contribution seeks to add a new dimension to this debate on European language regimes and democracy by raising the question of the congruence of language policy choices operated by national and European elites and ordinary citizens’ preferences: While different surveys have shown the existence of a certain support for multilingualism among European citizens, these same citizens massively opt for English in their individual language learning choices and thus contribute de facto to strengthen the likelihood of the English as lingua franca scenario. By raising the question of the responsiveness of public policies in the field of language to citizens’ preferences, our contribution seeks to investigate to what extent a multilingual language regime be implemented against individual citizens’ policy preferences from a democratic point of view.