IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erp/euirsc/p0184.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Legitimating the European Union: The Contested Meanings of an EU Constitution

Author

Listed:
  • Florian Oberhuber

Abstract

Following up on a previous study on the Convention on the Future of Europe, the present article investigates the reception of the EU's constitutional experience in the public. A qualitative analysis of the press coverage of the various phases of constitutionalisation between the decision on establishing a Convention in December 2001 and the provisional suspension of ratification in 2005 is carried out. While it is pointed out that the constitutional project entailed a bid for legitimacy which implied a strong engagement of the public, the reception of constitutionalisation in the press did not result in a democratic process of mobilisation. However, the failure of such an interpretation of the European Union as a democracy in the making did not amount to a de-legitimation of the EU in the coverage analysed. Rather, another semantic framework for making meaning of the Europolity was found which was based on a predominantly statist reading of its constituents and which legitimated co-operation over unilateral action, namely constructing a normative discourse of the EU member-states in search of a common "European" as opposed to their "national" interests. Hence, the article proposes to take note of the fact that discourses about the European Union show a large degree of polysemia and contestedness, and it develops a framework for empirically studying legitimation as a semiotic process involving the justification of the political system and its output.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Oberhuber, 2007. "Legitimating the European Union: The Contested Meanings of an EU Constitution," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 25, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    • Handle: RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0184
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eui.eu/ERPA/RSCAS/../../RSCAS/WP-Texts/07_25.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.eui.eu/ERPA/RSCAS/../../RSCAS/WP-Texts/07_25.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Follesdal, Andreas & Hix, Simon, 2005. "Why There is a Democratic Deficit in the EU: A Response to Majone and Moravcsik," European Governance Papers (EUROGOV) 2, CONNEX and EUROGOV networks.
    2. Claes H. de Vreese & Susan A. Banducci & Holli A. Semetko & Hajo G. Boomgaarden, 2006. "The News Coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary Election Campaign in 25 Countries," European Union Politics, , vol. 7(4), pages 477-504, December.
    3. Christoph Meyer, 2007. "The Constitutional Treaty debates as revelatory mechanisms: Insights for public sphere research and re-launch attempts," RECON Online Working Papers Series 6, RECON.
    4. Christian Joerges; Jurgen Neyer, 2006. "Deliberative Supranationalism Revisited," EUI-LAW Working Papers 20, European University Institute (EUI), Department of Law.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:453-481 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Elena Mihaela LIGHIAN, 2012. "Multilevel Governance and Principle of Subsidiarity in the European Union," Europolity – Continuity and Change in European Governance - Old Series, Department of International Relations and European Integration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 6(1-2), pages 15-26.
    3. Marianne van de Steeg & Thomas Risse, 2010. "The Emergence of a European Community of Communication - Insights from Empirical Research on the Europeanization of Public Spheres," KFG Working Papers p0015, Free University Berlin.
    4. Chris Skelcher & Jacob Torfing, 2010. "Improving democratic governance through institutional design: Civic participation and democratic ownership in Europe," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(1), pages 71-91, March.
    5. Anca-Maria LILEA, 2012. "Aspects of European Citizenship," Europolity – Continuity and Change in European Governance - Old Series, Department of International Relations and European Integration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 6(1-2), pages 27-34.
    6. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:46:y:2008:i::p:765-786 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Scott L. Greer & Elize Massard da Fonseca & Christopher Adolph, 2008. "Mobilizing Bias in Europe," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(3), pages 403-433, September.
    8. Christian Joerges; Jurgen Neyer, 2006. "Deliberative Supranationalism Revisited," EUI-LAW Working Papers 20, European University Institute (EUI), Department of Law.
    9. Nadia Fiorino & Nicola Pontarollo & Roberto Ricciuti, 2016. "Voter Turnout in European Parliament Elections: A Spatial Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 5910, CESifo.
    10. Hortala-Vallve, Rafael & Larcinese, Valentino, 2017. "The Perverse Consequences of Policy Restrictions in the Presence of Asymmetric Information," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 411-425, July.
    11. Claus Offe & Ulrich K. Preuss, 2006. "The Problem of Legitimacy in the European Polity. Is Democratization the Answer?," The Constitutionalism Web-Papers p0028, University of Hamburg, Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science.
    12. Adriana ANGHEL, 2012. "The Open Method of Coordination," Europolity – Continuity and Change in European Governance - Old Series, Department of International Relations and European Integration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 6(1-2), pages 4-14.
    13. Katjana Gattermann & Claes De Vreese & Wouter van der Brug, 2016. "Evaluations of the Spitzenkandidaten: The Role of Information and News Exposure in Citizens’ Preference Formation," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 37-54.
    14. Thomas König, 2007. "Discontinuity," European Union Politics, , vol. 8(3), pages 411-432, September.
    15. Guri Rosén, 2019. "Proving Their Worth? The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Members of the European Parliament," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 266-278.
    16. Swantje Renfordt, 2007. "Do Europeans speak with one another in time of war? Results of a media analysis on the 2003 Iraq war," RECON Online Working Papers Series 17, RECON.
    17. Silke Adam & Michaela Maier, 2011. "National parties as politicizers of EU integration? Party campaign communication in the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament election," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(3), pages 431-453, September.
    18. Silke Adam, 2009. "Bringing the Mass Media in - The Contribution of the Mass Media for Understanding Citizens’ Attitudes towards the European Union," KFG Working Papers p0004, Free University Berlin.
    19. Francisco Torres, 2006. "On the efficiency-legitimacy trade-off in EMU," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 36, Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial, Universidade de Aveiro.
    20. Carmen ȘTEFAN, 2012. "The influence of Lobbying on EU Democracy," Europolity – Continuity and Change in European Governance - Old Series, Department of International Relations and European Integration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 6(1-2), pages 35-50.
    21. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:44:y:2006:i::p:27-49 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Kotzian, Peter & Steffek, Jens, 2011. "Legitimacy and activities of civil society organizations," TranState Working Papers 156, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    23. Kröger, Sandra, 2008. "Nothing but consultation: The place of organised civil society in EU policy-making across policies," European Governance Papers (EUROGOV) 3, CONNEX and EUROGOV networks.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    constitution building; European public space; media; European Convention; Austria; legitimacy; democracy;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0184. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Valerio PAPPALARDO (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rsiueit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.