Political representation and legitimacy in the European Union
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Political representation and legitimacy in the European Union
Oxford University Press, 1999
Available at 17 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. [275]-296
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
How severe a problem is what many call the 'democratic deficit' of the European Union? Despite a voluminous theoretical literature dealing with this question, there is hardly any systematic empirical investigation of the effectiveness of the system of political representation in the EU and of the legitimacy beliefs of EU citizens that spring from it.
This volume elaborates a conceptual framework for the empirical analysis of the alleged democratic deficit. Four dimensions of legitimacy beliefs are identified and analysed: the European political community, the scope of EU government, the institutions and processes of EU government, and EU policies.
Based upon large-scale representative surveys among the mass publics, and different strata of the political elite of the EU and its member-states, the book examines the conditions of political representation in the EU. The results demonstrate, by and large, that legitimacy beliefs of EU citizens are the more positive, the less specific the object of identification and evaluations is; and that the process of political representation works pretty well as long as issues other than European Union
issues are concerned. These findings are finally discussed in view of familiar strategies for institutional reform of the European Union.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union
- PART I: LEGITIMACY
- 2. A Political Community?
- 3. The Scope of EU Government
- 4. Support for the Political Regime
- 5. Policy Support
- PART II: PEPRESENTATION
- 6. Distinctiveness and Cohesion of Political Parties
- 7. The Cognitive Basis of Voting
- 8. Policy Representation and Party Choice
- 9. Issue Congruence
- 10. Whom to Represent? Role Orientation of Legislators in Europe
- 11. Wishful Thinking Among European Parliamentarians
- 12. In Conclusion: Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union
by "Nielsen BookData"