Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://dspace.mediu.edu.my:8181/xmlui/handle/123456789/5455| Title: | A New Kind of Legitimacy for a New Kind of Parliament The Evolution of the European Parliament |
| Keywords: | legitimacy European Parliament Treaty on European Union European citizenship accountability Amsterdam Treaty co-decision procedure democracy democratization federalism institutionalism institutions integration theory intergovernmentalism political representation political science |
| Issue Date: | 30-May-2013 |
| Publisher: | ECSA-Austria |
| Description: | The Treaty on European Union (EU) has on the one hand increased democratic legitimacy of the integration process by confering new powers to the European Parliament (EP) - legitimacy viewed as an attribute-, while on the other hand acceptance by the citizens - legitimacy conceived as orientation - dropped considerably after Maastricht. This situation hints at a paradox and highlights the need for a more complex approach to the issue of legitimacy of the EU and the role played by the EP. As a first step, we identify different views on the role of the European Parliament: a federalist and a realist one. Further, they are contrasted with empirical findings about the role and function of the EP after Maastricht, using three main dimensions: policy-making, system-development and interaction with the citizens. Taking into account the results of this inquiry, we present a new perspective on the EP based upon a view of the EU as a new kind of political system characterised by fusion. It is a major feature of this new kind of political system that national, subnational and supranational actors merge their instruments to 'produce' political decisions. The result is a mixed polity whose legitimacy is neither based on a collective personality called 'the people' nor on the single peoples of the member states only, but on a 'pluralistic citizenship' as a 'unity-in diversity'. Legitimacy as an attribute must be defined in new terms deviant from national experiences, entailing - at least partly - a lack of transparency, increasing complexity and growing differentiation. Is Legitimacy possible despite these apparant drawbacks? This question hints at an ambiguous, but also 'productive' tension within the EU system as a whole and with regard to the role and position of the EP in particular. |
| URI: | http://koha.mediu.edu.my:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/5455 |
| Other Identifiers: | http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/1997-006.htm http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=openurl&genre=article&issn=10275193&date=1997&volume=1&issue=&spage=6 |
| Appears in Collections: | Law and Political Science |
Files in This Item:
There are no files associated with this item.
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.