Crisis of the European Union Legitimacy - No European Demos in Sight

Krize legitimity Evropské unie - evropský démos v nedohledu

Štěpán Strnad

Současná Evropa, 2013, vol. 2013, issue 1, 123-140

Abstract: The discussion on the relation of the European identity and the legitimacy of the European Union, including the questions of formation of the "Union" demos, or the influence of constructing EU's citizenship on the legitimization of the European integrating process has already become a permanent component of political and scholar discourse in a wider issue of the democratic EU deficit. In connection with this phenomenon we talk most frequently about its expressions such as the estrangement of integration processes from the public, the low election participation as well as the low level of general civic participation, the technocracy of resolution processes, the weak civil society, the absence of European public sphere, the non-existence of European nation, the identity in common and others. The article focuses on the sociological level of this deficit, proceeding from the premise that the most urgent problem of the EU legitimacy is not the crisis of the resolution process and the bureaucratization of the administrative apparatus, but the non-existence of the European demos. The aim is to emphasize the importance of the relation of the creation of European national identities, the efforts of constructing the European demos, EU's citizenship and a difficult process of the legitimization of the European Union towards member states' public.

Keywords: Democratic Deficit; European Union; Legitimacy; Identity; Citizenship; Demos; Demokratický deficit; Evropská unie; legitimita; identita; občanství; démos (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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