Conflict of Legitimacies within the European Union: Indirect, Parliamentary, Technocratic and Procedural Legitimacy in Theory and Constitutional Practice
Abstract
The Monograph deals with legitimacy of the European Union and european integration, which is crucial topic of european integration studies in recent decades. In the first part the concept of legitimacy is analysed and critical overview of theoretical contributions to the topic of EU's legitimacy deficit is provided.
In the second part, when analysing particular modalities of legitimacy within the EU, the author follows the strand of democratic theory dealing with the concept and functioning of democratic representation. The framework for the second part is a spatio-mechanical metaphor of four modalities ("vectors") of legitimacy (legitimation) formulated previously in the literature.
It consists of indirect legitimacy, parliamentary legitimacy, technocratic legitimacy and procedural legitimacy. Disbalance of these modalities after the Lisbon Treaty is discussed.
The main thesis of the book is that deficit of legitimacy is, above all, deficit of democratic representation, which might not be reduced to the national level only. Democratic decison-making on the national level, on the one hand, and EU-wide level, on the other, are not posited as mutually excluding alternatives as in the logic of zero-sum game.
Establishing substantive democratic representation on the european level is an institutional problem. Adding powers to the European parliament (or to the Commission) is not a viable solution.
Its composition and functioning, in the law-making especially, is of equal importance. Visible political contestation, better informing and continual interaction of representatives with the public are indispensable.
There is a lack of incetives for developing a fully-fledged democratic representation in the present design and practice of european institutions. However, it is even more needed after the Euro-zone crisis.