469 research outputs found
Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited - Input, Output and Throughput
Whether their analytic frameworks focus on institutional form and practices or on its interactive construction, scholars have analyzed the EUâs democratic legitimacy mainly in terms of the trade-offs between the output effectiveness of EUâs policies outcomes for the people and the input participation by and representation of the people. Missing is theorization of the throughput efficiency, accountability, transparency, and openness to consultation with the people of the EUâs internal governance processes. The paper argues that adding this analytic category facilitates assessment of these legitimizing mechanismsâ interdependencies and facilitates consideration of reforms that could turn this democratic trilemma into a virtuous circle.democracy; legitimacy; Europeanization; Europeanization
Theorizing ideas and discourse in political science: intersubjectivity, neo-institutionalisms, and the power of ideas
Oscar Larssonâs (2015) essay condemns discursive institutionalism for the âsinâ of subjectivism. In reality, however, discursive institutionalism emphasizes the intersubjective nature of ideas through its theorization of agentsâ âbackground ideational abilitiesâ and âforeground discursive abilities.â It also avoids relativism by means of Wittgensteinâs distinction between experiences of everyday life and pictures of the world. Contrary to Larsson, what truly separates post-structuralism from discursive institutionalism is the respective approachesâ theorization of the relationship of power to ideas, with discursive institutionalists mainly focused on persuasive power through ideas, while post-structuralists focus on the structural power in ideas or on coercive power over ideas
The Discursive double game of EMU reform: the clash of titans between French White Knight and German Iron Lady. Paper presented at the 9th Biennial Conference European Community Studies AssociationâCanada (ECSA-C), Ottawa, Ontario, April 27-28, 2012
From the Introduction. In the aftermath of the EUâs enlargement towards Central and Eastern Europe, many
scholars and observers of European integration were proclaiming that the French-German âengineâ of Europe had come to an end. The political legitimacy of French-German
initiatives was contested by coalitions of smaller member states and the ânew Europeâ was calling for new leadership dynamics. However, the experience of the Eurozone debt crisis provided dramatic evidence that no alternative to the Franco-German partnership has yet to emerge in the enlarged EU. In a time of existential crisis, Franco-German initiatives appear to have remained the basic dynamic of integration. However, unlike in the past, agreements
on steps forward have proven to be particularly difficult. This is largely due to these countriesâ contrasting political economic policy ideas, cultures, and practices....the paper analyses the ideational âframesâ of the two leaders while tracing their discursive interactions against changing background conditions since the European debt crisis was triggered by Greece in October 2009 until the last measures taken in 2012 before the French Presidential elections. The empirical analysis is based on a
systematic corpus of press conferences and media interviews by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel after European summits. It is complemented by a number of press interviews including some given by their respective Finance Ministers) and important speeches in that same period of time
The European Union in search of political identity and legitimacy: Is more Politics the Answer?
The problems of identity and legitimacy in the EU are significant, but tangentially interconnected. The problems for EU identity derive not solely from the fact that European citizens have not developed much sense of being European because they have not been doing a lot in the EU; it is also that national elites have not been saying much about what the EU has been doingâexcept in moments of crisis. The problems for legitimacy derive not only from the ways in which the EU worksâwith more emphasis on âoutputâ for the people and âthroughputâ withâ the people than âinputâ by and of the people. It is also that the EUâs development challenges nationally constructed identities at the same time that it alters the traditional workings of national democracy. And this in turn adds to problems for citizen identification with the EU and their perceptions of its legitimacy. So the question is: would politicizing the EU help build more identity and legitimacy? Or would this only increase the problems?political science; European identity; citizenship; legitimacy; democracy
The past decade and the future of governance and democracy: populist challenges to liberal democracy
Accepted manuscrip
input, output and throughput
1\. Introduction 5 2\. EU Legitimizing Mechanisms: Output, Input and
Throughput 6 3\. Output Legitimacy 11 3.1 Institutional Regulatory Output 11
3.2 Constructive Discursive Output 13 4\. Input Legitimacy 16 4.1
Institutional Representative Input 16 4.2 Constructive Deliberative Input 18
5\. Throughput Legitimacy 20 5.1 Institutional Pluralist Throughput 21 5.2
Institutional Rules-Based Throughput 22 5.3 Constructive Deliberative
Throughput 24 6\. Conclusion: Input, Output and Throughput as Democratic
Trilemma or Virtuous Circule? 26 Literature 28Whether their analytic frameworks focus on institutional form and practices or
on its interactive construction, scholars have analyzed the EUâs democratic
legitimacy mainly in terms of the trade-offs between the output effectiveness
of EUâs policies outcomes for the people and the input participation by and
representation of the people. Missing is theorization of the âthroughputâ
efficiency, accountability, transparency, and openness to consultation with
the people of the EUâs internal governance processes. The paper argues that
adding this analytic category facilitates assessment of these legitimizing
mechanismsâ interdependencies and facilitates consideration of reforms that
could turn this democratic trilemma into a âvirtuous circleâ
The future of differentiated integration: A âsoft-coreâ multi-clustered Europe of overlapping policy communities
In lieu of a conclusion to the Special Issue, this article discusses the future of Europe as one of differentiated integration. It argues that this future takes the form of member-statesâ overlapping participation in the EUâs many policy communities, making for a soft-core Europe, as an alternative option to the hard-core around the Eurozone. The article contends that this multi-clustered Europe is the only feasible future, given the challenges facing the EU from its many crises, its problems of governance, and the difficulties of decision-making against a background of increasing politicization. But such differentiation is not without its problems, given EU decision-rules, the interconnectedness of policy arenas that can spell problems of spillover, and the need for deeper integration in some policy areas (e.g., migration) while others many benefit from less or more highly differentiated integration (e.g., Eurozone). Institutional reforms would also be necessary to ensure a positive future of differentiated integration: while the EU would continue to require a single set of institutions, it would need modified decision-rules to allow for more (and less) differentiation depending upon the area.Accepted manuscrip
Democracy and legitimacy in the European Union revisited: input, output and throughput
Whether their analytic frameworks focus on institutional form and practices or on its interactive construction, scholars have analyzed the EUâs democratic legitimacy mainly in terms of the trade-offs between the output effectiveness of EUâs policies outcomes for the people and the input participation by and representation of the people. Missing is theorization of the âthroughputâ efficiency, accountability, transparency, and openness to consultation with the people of the EUâs internal governance processes. The paper argues that adding this analytic category facilitates assessment of these legitimizing mechanismsâ interdependencies and facilitates consideration of reforms that could turn this democratic trilemma into a âvirtuous circleâ
- âŠ