Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union

Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union PDF Author: Hermann Schmitt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198296614
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Get Book Here

Book Description
How severe a problem is what may be called the democratic deficit of the European Union? This volume elaborates a conceptual framework for the empirical analysis of the alleged democratic deficit.

Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union

Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union PDF Author: Hermann Schmitt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198296614
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Get Book Here

Book Description
How severe a problem is what may be called the democratic deficit of the European Union? This volume elaborates a conceptual framework for the empirical analysis of the alleged democratic deficit.

Centripetal Democracy

Centripetal Democracy PDF Author: Joseph Lacey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192517155
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Get Book Here

Book Description
Centripetal democracy is the idea that legitimate democratic institutions set in motion forms of citizen practice and representative behaviour that serve as powerful drivers of political identity formation. Partisan modes of political representation in the context of multifaceted electoral and direct democratic voting opportunities are emphasised on this model. There is, however, a strain of thought predominant in political theory that doubts the democratic capacities of political systems constituted by multiple public spheres. This view is referred to as the lingua franca thesis on sustainable democratic systems (LFT). Inadequate democratic institutions and acute demands to divide the political system (through devolution or secession), are predicted by this thesis. By combining an original normative democratic theory with a comparative analysis of how Belgium and Switzerland have variously managed to sustain themselves as multilingual democracies, this book identifies the main institutional features of a democratically legitimate European Union and the conditions required to bring it about. Part One presents a novel theory of democratic legitimacy and political identity formation on which subsequent analyses are based. Part Two defines the EU as a demoi-cracy and provides a thorough democratic assessment of this political system. Part Three explains why Belgium has largely succumbed to the centrifugal logic predicted by the LFT, while Switzerland apparently defies this logic. Part Four presents a model of centripetal democracy for the EU, one that would greatly reduce its democratic deficit and ensure that this political system does not succumb to the centrifugal forces expected by the LFT.

Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union

Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union PDF Author: Beate Kohler-Koch
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 074257640X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 403

Get Book Here

Book Description
The discussion about a constitution for the European Union and its rejection by referendum in two of the EU founding member states has once again spurred public and scholarly interest in the democratic quality and potential of the European Union. Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union brings together distinguished thinkers from law, political science, sociology, and political philosophy to explore the potential for democratically legitimate governance in the European Union. Drawing on different theoretical perspectives and strands from democratic theory, this volume is the first of its kind to overcome the present state of fragmentation in the debate about the conditions and possible remedies for what is often called the "democratic deficit" of the European Union. Among the pressing questions addressed by the contributors are: What future is there for parliamentary democracy in the European Union? Can we observe the evolution of a European public sphere and civil society? Can participatory democracy or deliberative democracy pave the road for a democratically legitimate European Union? Conversations about democracy have engaged the public in a new way since the beginning of the Iraq war, and this volume is the best resource for students and readers who are interested in democracy in the European Union. Contributions by: Rudy B. Andeweg, Katrin Auel, Arthur Benz, Lars-Erik Cederman, Damian Chalmers, Deirdre Curtin, Donatella Della Porta, Klaus Eder, Erik O. Eriksen, Ulrich Haltern, Hubert Heinelt, Doug Imig, Christian Joerges, Beate Kohler-Koch, Christopher Lord, Paul Magnette, Andreas Maurer, Jeremy Richardson, Berthold Rittberger, Rainer Schmalz-Bruns, Michael Th. Greven, Hans-Jörg Trenz, and Armin von Bogdandy

Financial Crisis Management and Democracy

Financial Crisis Management and Democracy PDF Author: Bettina De Souza Guilherme
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030548953
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book Here

Book Description
This open access book discusses financial crisis management and policy in Europe and Latin America, with a special focus on equity and democracy. Based on a three-year research project by the Jean Monnet Network, this volume takes an interdisciplinary, comparative approach, analyzing both the role and impact of the EU and regional organizations in Latin America on crisis management as well as the consequences of crisis on the process of European integration and on Latin America’s regionalism. The book begins with a theoretical introduction, exploring the effects of the paradigm change on economic policies in Europe and in Latin America and analyzing key systemic aspects of the unsustainability of the present economic system explaining the global crises and their interconnections. The following chapters are divided into sections. The second section explores aspects of regional governance and how the economic and financial crises were managed on a macro level in Europe and Latin America. The third and fourth sections use case studies to drill down to the impact of the crises at the national and regional levels, including the emergence of political polarization and rise in populism in both areas. The last section presents proposals for reform, including the transition from finance capitalism to a sustainable real capitalism in both regions and at the inter-regional level of EU-LAC relations.The volume concludes with an epilogue on financial crises, regionalism, and domestic adjustment by Loukas Tsoukalis, President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). Written by an international network of academics, practitioners and policy advisors, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students interested in macroeconomics, comparative regionalism, democracy, and financial crisis management as well as politicians, policy advisors, and members of national and regional organizations in the EU and Latin America.

Legitimacy and the European Union

Legitimacy and the European Union PDF Author: Thomas F. Banchoff
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415181887
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Get Book Here

Book Description
Beetham and Lord provide concise and analytical coverage of a key topic within the European Union, that is, the legitimacy of European supra-national governance.

Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union

Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union PDF Author: Hermann Schmitt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198296614
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Get Book Here

Book Description
How severe a problem is what many call the 'democratic deficit' of the European Union? Despite a voluminous theoretical literature dealing with this question, there is hardly any systematic empirical investigation of the effectiveness of the system of political representation in the EU and ofthe legitimacy beliefs of EU citizens that spring from it.This volume elaborates a conceptual framework for the empirical analysis of the alleged democratic deficit. Four dimensions of legitimacy beliefs are identified and analysed: the European political community, the scope of EU government, the institutions and processes of EU government, and EUpolicies.Based upon large-scale representative surveys among the mass publics, and different strata of the political elite of the EU and its member-states, the book examines the conditions of political representation in the EU. The results demonstrate, by and large, that legitimacy beliefs of EU citizensare the more positive, the less specific the object of identification and evaluations is; and that the process of political representation works pretty well as long as issues other than European Union issues are concerned. These findings are finally discussed in view of familiar strategies forinstitutional reform of the European Union.

A Republican Europe of States

A Republican Europe of States PDF Author: Richard Bellamy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107022282
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
Examines the democratic legitimacy of international organisations from a republican perspective, diagnoses the EU as suffering from a democratic disconnect and offers 'demoicracy' as the cure.

The European Union in Crisis

The European Union in Crisis PDF Author: Kyriakos N. Demetriou
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319087746
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume is a comprehensive and rigorous exploration of intertwined issues surrounding the EU's democracy and legitimacy, written in the turbulent context of the financial crisis. The chapters are woven together under four interconnected thematic sections that examine: rapidly growing national euroscepticism; the Economic Monetary Union and its legitimacy; the future of EU integration; and democratic deficit(s) across its internal & external structure. The volume presents an authoritative collection of research results and surveys by experts in various disciplines related to the EU, and is addressed to researchers and students examining EU governance, representation and accountability, as well as practitioners across a multiplicity of fields.

Representing Europe's Citizens?

Representing Europe's Citizens? PDF Author: David M. Farrell
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199285020
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Get Book Here

Book Description
Publisher description

People and Parliament in the European Union

People and Parliament in the European Union PDF Author: Jean Blondel
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191522031
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
The power of the European Parliament has been steadily and visibly increasing in recent years. This arises from EU treaty changes and from the fact that more and more decisions are being made at the European level. At the same time, however, the already low rate of turnout in European elections has actually been declining. This powerful new study examines a seemingly paradoxical situation which has raised deep concern about the democratic deficit in the European Union. The authors analyse the concepts of participation, democracy, and legitimacy and their applicability at the European level and develop a typology of voter participation and abstention in the European context. Combining extensive new data from specially commissioned surveys in all 1994 member states with a searching review of the existing evidence, they provide a comprehensive account of the legitimacy of the European Union and examine the images of the European Parliament, citizens experiences of the 1994 campaign and their perceptions of the parties and the candidates. In an analysis that challenges existing interpretations, the institutional, demographic, and attitudinal sources of participation and abstention are fully explored. The study concludes by considering how participation and democratic representation might be enhanced, acknowledging forthrightly the obstacles and inherent limits that such efforts are likely to face.