This book examines and investigates the legitimacy of the European Union by acknowledging the importance of variation across actors, institutions, audiences, and context.
This book examines and investigates the legitimacy of the European Union by acknowledging the importance of variation across actors, institutions, audiences, and context.
Case studies reveal how different actors have contributed to the politics of (re)legitimating the European Union in response to multiple recent problems in European integration. The case studies look specifically at stakeholder interests, social groups, officials, judges, the media and other actors external to the Union. With this, the book develops a better understanding of how the politics of legitimating the Union are actor-dependent, context-dependent and problem-dependent.
This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European integration, as well as those interested in legitimacy and democracy beyond the state from a point of view of political science, political sociology and the social sciences more broadly.
Part 1: Theoretical framework: The politics of legitimation
1.
Introduction
2. Conflating policy, democracy and legitimacy: The case of
stakeholder involvement Part 2: Legitimation by individual citizens and
officials
3. Winning minds not hearts? Citizens emotions and European
integration
4. Trust lost, trust regained? Trust, legitimacy and multi-level
governance
5. Beyond support: Public opinion and EU legitimacy
6. Dublin is
dead: A study in delegitimation Part 3: Legitimation by media and parliaments
7. Whose voice is louder? Politicisation and legitimation in state aid policy
8. Legitimation strategies and national parliaments: The case of
anti-corruption
9. Toothless observers or comprehensive players? National
parliaments and the European Semester Part 4: Legitimation by governments,
courts and external actors
10. A Two-Way Street: Flexible and Rigid
Legitimation across Actors and Policies in the EU
11. Post-Crisis Legitimacy
in the EUs Economic and Monetary Union: The Cases of European Fiscal Policy
Coordination and Banking Supervision
12. Normative power Europe? Lessons in
legitimacy, conditionality and compliance Part 5: Theoretical conclusions on
legitimation and legitimacy
13. Polycrisis and Resilience in the EU: Covid-19
and avenues for future studies
14. The many actors of direct and indirect
legitimacy
15. Concluding Implications for EU Policy, Law and Institutions
Christopher Lord is Professor at ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway, and Scientific Co-ordinator of the PLATO network.
Peter Bursens is Jean Monnet Chair and Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science of the University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Dirk De Bičvre is Professor of International Politics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Jarle Trondal is a Professor at University of Agder, Department of Political Science and Management, and a Professor at the University of Oslo, ARENA Centre for European Studies, Norway.
Ramses A. Wessel is Professor of European Law and Head of the Department of European and Economic Law at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.
