Power and Legitimacy. Review article: Peter L. Lindseth, Power and Legitimacy. Reconciling Europe and the Nation-State

The thorough analysis that Lindseth performs of national executive leadership, parliamentary scrutiny, and judicial review to demonstrate the case for supranational delegation, leads to a clear-cut opposition between ‘administrative’ and ‘constitutional’ integration. In this way, the author recuperates a strong definition of ‘classic constitutionalism’, which I have also tried to defend. We could read this as a critique of the legal theory that perhaps abuses of terms such as ‘constitution’, ‘constitutionalism’, and ‘constitutionalisation’ in reference to the treaties, the EU legislation and the ECJ judgements. Similarly, an administrative delegation interpretation of the integration process may help to put into the right perspectives the ‘exhausting’ debates in political science about the democratic deficit, legitimacy, politicisation, political mandates, etc. The author sees these as ‘category mistakes’. In my view, they are also policy mistake and dangerous ‘fuite en avant’.