Legitimacy and the European Union : the contested polity / edited by Thomas Banchoff and Mitchell P. Smith.

ISBN:

9780203982037

9780415181884

9780415181891

Title:

Legitimacy and the European Union : the contested polity / edited by Thomas Banchoff and Mitchell P. Smith.

Author:

Banchoff, Thomas F., 1964-

Publication Information:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1999.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 226 pages) : illustrations

Contents:

Introduction: conceptualizing legitimacy in a contested policy / Thomas Banchoff and Mitchell P. Smith -- EU legitimacy and the "defensive" reaction to the single European market / Mitchell P. Smith -- Unity-in-diversity: cultural policy and EU legitimacy / Melissa Pantel -- Reconciliation and legitimacy: foreign relations and enlargement of the European Union / Lil Gardner Feldman -- Political parties and the problem of legitimacy in the European Union / Robert Ladrech -- National parties and the contestation of Europe / Gary Marks and Carole Wilson -- The European parliament and EU legitimacy / Wolfgang Wessels and Udo Diedrichs -- EU citizenship: implications for identity and legitimacy / Rey Koslowski -- National identity and EU legitimacy in France and Germany / Thomas Banchoff -- Political rhetoric and the legitimation of the European Union / John Gaffney.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Corporate Subject:

European Union.

Subject Term:

European federation.

Legitimacy of governments -- Europe.

Added Author:

Banchoff, Thomas F., 1964-

Smith, Mitchell P., 1960-

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

1999

Publication Information:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1999.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
341.2422 21	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Since the Maastricht ratification debate of the early 1990s, the legitimacy of the European Union has become a subject of controversy. With unprecedented force, Europeans have begun to question the need for deeper integration. Some fear threats to established national identities, while others perceive the emergence of a distant but powerful Brussels, beyond the reach of democratic control. Legitimacy and the European Union breaks with established approaches to the problem of the legitimacy of the European Union by focusing on the recent trend towards reconceptualization of the EU not as a superstate or an organization of states, but as a multi-level, contested polity without precedent. The book examines the implications of this reconceptualization for the problem of legitimacy. Individual chapters focus on policy areas, institutions and identity politics. Taken together, they reach two main conclusions. While Europeans do not strongly identify with the EU, they increasingly recognize it as a framework for politics alongside existing national and subnational structures. And while the EU lacks central democratic institutions, the integration process has spawned significant informal and pluralist forms of representation. Rethinking recognition and representation ouside the context of the nation state points to important, if little understood, actual and potential sources of EU legitimacy.