Debating Political Identity and Legitimacy in the European Union

Abstract:
It is widely recognised that the fallout from the failure of the referenda on the Constitutional Treaty and from the enlargement of the EU to Central and East Europe could very well develop into an existential crisis for the integration process.

This book examines the processes related to the development of identity and legitimacy and their interrelationships, in order to find out how far a political enterprise as tortuous and open-ended as the European process still has a chance to go on and consolidate. It brings together a cluster of scholars, from various disciplinary backgrounds to debate the ontological and epistemological aspects of research on identity and legitimacy formation in the EU.

Part I offers four different general approaches to that relationship, and to the connected issue of democracy.

Part II specifically focuses on legitimacy in the context of related categories such as power, citizenship, Constitution and (global) governance. and is highly interdisciplinary.

Part III looks first at what features emerge with regard to the identity-legitimacy nexus in the foreign policy domain, first in terms of the conduct of foreign policy and second in terms of the EU image abroad. Finally the authors focus on the transversal category of political symbol, without which identity can scarcely be grasped, in a critical attitude towards EU policies on this.

Contents:

Part 1: What do Political Identity and Legitimacy mean in the EU?
1. Democratic Legitimacy in Europe: The Problems of Politics, Identity, and Discourse - Vivien Schmidt
2. Collective Identities in Europe: Challenging Traditional Sociological Concepts? - Klaus Eder
3. European Authority and Identity by Way of Opening the Public Spheres of Nation States - Jos de Beus and Jeannette Mak
4. Collective Identities and Political Legitimacy in the EU - Dieter Fuchs

Part 2: Legitimacy, Citizenship, Constitution
5. Power and Legitimacy in the EU - Nicolas Levrat
6. The Values of Citizenship: Belonging, Rights and Participation and their Limits in the EU - Richard Bellamy
7. The Three European Constitutions and their Respective Legitimacy Requirements - Mario Telò
8. What makes European Governance as Opposed to Global Governance Legitimate? - Furio Cerutti

Part 3: Pathways to Identity Formation
9. At Home and Abroad? Conceptualizing the Relationship Between External Images and the Europeans’ Political Identity - Sonia Lucarelli
10. False Expectations: The Counter-Productive Side Effects of the EU's use of Political Symbols - Albrecht Sonntag
11. Discussing Europe: The Emergence of a European Public Sphere in the Foreign Policy Domain? - Martin F. Meyer