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The European Union in search of political identity and legitimacy: Is more Politics the Answer?

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  • Vivien A. Schmidt

Abstract

The problems of identity and legitimacy in the EU are significant, but tangentially interconnected. The problems for EU identity derive not solely from the fact that European citizens have not developed much sense of being European because they have not been doing a lot in the EU; it is also that national elites have not been saying much about what the EU has been doing—except in moments of crisis. The problems for legitimacy derive not only from the ways in which the EU works—with more emphasis on ‘output’ for the people and ‘throughput’ with’ the people than ‘input’ by and of the people. It is also that the EU’s development challenges nationally constructed identities at the same time that it alters the traditional workings of national democracy. And this in turn adds to problems for citizen identification with the EU and their perceptions of its legitimacy. So the question is: would politicizing the EU help build more identity and legitimacy? Or would this only increase the problems?

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  • Vivien A. Schmidt, 2010. "The European Union in search of political identity and legitimacy: Is more Politics the Answer?," Working Papers of the Vienna Institute for European integration research (EIF) 5, Institute for European integration research (EIF).
    • Handle: RePEc:erp:eifxxx:p0013
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Vivien A. Schmidt, 2004. "The European Union: Democratic Legitimacy in a Regional State?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 975-997, December.
    2. Scharpf, Fritz W., 2007. "Reflections on multilevel legitimacy," MPIfG Working Paper 07/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Vivien Schmidt, 2010. "Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited - Input, Output and Throughput," KFG Working Papers p0021, Free University Berlin.
    4. James Caporaso & Sidney Tarrow, 2008. "Polanyi in Brussels: European institutions and the embedding of markets in society," RECON Online Working Papers Series 1, RECON.
    5. Christopher J. S. Gentle, 1996. "Europe in 2010," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: After Liberalisation, chapter 7, pages 121-132, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Schmidt, Vivien A., 2002. "The Futures of European Capitalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199253685, Decembrie.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wilhelm Lehmann, 2011. "Electoral Representation at the European level and its Institutional Design: A reappraisal of recent reform plans," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 23, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    2. Vaaks Katri, 2013. "The European Union in the Estonian Public Discourse," TalTech Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 3(2), pages 50-67, October.
    3. Marianne van de Steeg, 2010. "Emotions, Media Discourse and the Mobilization of Citizens - Conceptual Considerations and a Plausibility," KFG Working Papers p0016, Free University Berlin.

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    Keywords

    political science; European identity; citizenship; legitimacy; democracy;
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