Legitimacy and Identification in the European Union : From Conceptualisation to Empirical Framework (Workshop 17 : 'Political Identity and Legitimacy in the Politics of the European Union')
(2006) ECPR Joint Sessions — Location: Nicosie
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- Abstract
- This paper has a double aim. On the one hand, it provides theoretical reflections on the conceptualisation of legitimacy and identity in a multi-level governance system and post-modern quasi-polity such as the EU. On the other hand, it suggests to link these reflections to empirical research by analysing the operationalisation of these concepts. From a theoretical perspective, the paper starts with reflections on the concept of legitimacy in the European Union defined as a multi-level political system. The basic question here is the following: “what does legitimacy mean within the context of the EU?”. Attention will be then given to the concept of political identity of the Europeans. It will be argued that the subjective feeling of identity really matters. The self-identification of EU citizens to Europe is taken into account. But, European identification is directly related to national identifications and the relationship between these two identifications is complex. The considerable attention devoted to that question by Duchesne and Frognier will be actualised here. When it comes to the individual level, the empirical research is strongly dependant on available data (Eurobarometer and World Values surveys). Some questions from these surveys have been typically used to study political identity and legitimacy. However critical analysis of these trends questions is certainly needed. Consequently, the second part of the paper will mainly focus, on basis of empirical results, on the criticism of these questions as indicators of the concepts of identity and legitimacy.
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Frognier, A.-P., & Van Ingelgom, V. (2006). Legitimacy and Identification in the European Union : From Conceptualisation to Empirical Framework (Workshop 17 : ‘Political Identity and Legitimacy in the Politics of the European Union’). ECPR Joint Sessions, Nicosie. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/154745