EU legitimacy revisited: the normative foundations of a multilevel polity

  • This paper reconceptualizes the challenge of legitimate governance in the European Union (EU) as a multilevel polity. Legitimacy is defined as one possible motivation for accepting political rule; it roots in citizens’ affiliation with a balanced set of core values and their structural realization. This article argues that any attempt to legitimize the EU faces two distinct challenges. First, owing to the co-existence of states and individuals as political subjects, national legitimacy standards – defined by their balance of negative freedom, political equality and welfare – cannot be reproduced. Second, the legitimacy of both the Union and its member states depends upon the compatibility of values across levels. Empirically, legitimacy is hard to disentangle from other motivations behind acceptance, such as self-interest or fear of sanctions. By analysing the EU's constitutional evolution as a ‘structural proxy’ for its underlying values, we capture shifts in the supranational value configuration and identify potential incompatibilities with established national balances. Such incompatibilities, we argue, are a hitherto neglected challenge to the normative justifiability of both the EU and its member states.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Author(s):Nicole Bolleyer, Christine Reh
Parent Title (English):Journal of European Public Policy
Publication year:2012
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
First Page:472
Last Page:490
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2011.610688
Release Date:2018/12/13
Tag:European integration, institutional reform, legitimacy, multilevel polity, values
Volume:19
Issue:4
Licence of document (German):Metadaten / metadata
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