Towards a micro socio-political concept of legitimacy reconsidered in the context of European integration

Van Ingelgom, Virginie
(2008) Workshop 9 : Does European integration theory need sociology ? Towards a research agenda / ECPR Joint Sessions — Location: Rennes, France (11.April.2008)

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Abstract
Theoretical and empirical research on the political legitimacy of the European Union has been one of the hallmarks of European studies since it burgeoned as an academic discipline after the difficulties surrounding the ratification of the Maastricht treaty in the early nineties. If legitimacy has benefited from sustained attention from both normative political philosophy and empirical research, few sociological studies that seek to bring a “bottomup” perspective on this matter have been published. Using a brief overview of the literature on European legitimacy as point of departure and pointing to some of its shortcomings, this paper aims to reconsider this issue at a micro-level and from a socio-political perspective, by studying how the European integration process has impacted on the acceptance and the appropriation of the political order by citizens. Indeed, legitimacy refers here to the, more or less conscious, appropriation and acceptance by citizens of the structures of political authority (broadly understood to be both organisational and symbolic) an issue that has not yet been addressed directly by the European literature. Focus groups conducted in Great-Britain, France and Belgium will serve as a microscope to address this issue empirically, but the research design relies both on qualitative and quantitative data and methods. Thus this paper aims to contribute to the question addressed by this workshop, “does European integration theory need sociology ?”, by focusing on one research object in particular : European legitimacy.
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Van Ingelgom, V. (2008). Towards a micro socio-political concept of legitimacy reconsidered in the context of European integration. Workshop 9 : Does European integration theory need sociology ? Towards a research agenda / ECPR Joint Sessions, Rennes, France. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/160766