Neither responsive, nor responsible? Citizens’ understandings of political actors in the socio-economic governance of the EU
(2023) Conference of the Council for European Studies — Location: University of Reykjavik (27.June.2023)
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- Abstract
- The article addresses the implications of Mair’s analysis of the dilemma between political actors’ responsiveness and responsibility at the level of citizens. It studies citizens’ understandings of political actors’ responsiveness and responsibility in their discourses on the SEGEU. It provides an in-depth abductive secondary analysis of three qualitative datasets collected in Belgium and France between 2005 and 2019. Most participants frame responsibility and responsiveness in terms that are close to Mair’s definitions. A few of them, though, challenge the principle of responsibility and elaborate on an alternative understanding revolving around achieving the common good. However, there is no dilemma along Mair’s line as participants agree that political actors are not responsive to them, but to market actors. The analysis shows that political actors’ capacity for agency and choice frame participants’ understandings of responsiveness and responsibility. This result grounds a reconceptualization of the politicization of the EU from a citizen perspective.
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Citations
Dupuy, C., & Van Ingelgom, V. (2023). Neither responsive, nor responsible? Citizens’ understandings of political actors in the socio-economic governance of the EU. Conference of the Council for European Studies, University of Reykjavik. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/104545