Which democracy for which differentiation?

This contribution investigates what lies behind differentiated integration (DI) in terms of democracy. The paper has the normative objective to put DI in the democratic process and to clarify the constructive, yet ambivalent, political empowerment that DI could allow to reinforce EU integration. The paper intends also to draw some parallels between mechanism of democracy and how DI is subject to a similar logic. The “classical” view of Tocqueville’s Democracy is applied through a cross-reference at historical, conceptual and political dimensions. Such view allows to put EU’s DI paradoxes into the perspective of the democratic potential domination.