Debating Political Identity and Legitimacy in the European Union

How can we conceptualize identity and legitimacy in the context of the European union? What is the role of narratives, political symbols, public debate and institutional practices in the process of identity formation and legitimacy consolidation? Debating Political Identity and Legitimacy in the European Union addresses these questions and brings together high profile scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds to debate the ontological and epistemological aspects of research on identity and legitimacy formation in the EU. Part I investigates key elements such as the relationship between ‘Europeanization’ of the EU member states and its effect on the political identity of their citizens; the relationship between the politicization of the EU and processes of identity and legitimacy formation; and the indispensability of European identity for legitimizing the EU. Part II looks at pathways to identity formation and legitimacy construction in the EU by considering alternative types of constitutional legitimacy; political symbolism; Europeanization and politicization of the debate on EU focusing on the foreign policy domain. Bringing together a wide but coherent range of high profile perspectives, this book will of interest to students and scholars of European studies, Political Science, Philosophy, Sociology and Law. Content: Preface Furio Cerutti, Sonia Lucarelli and Vivien Schmidt Part 1: Reflections on Identity and Legitimacy in the European Union 1. How Not to (mis)Understand Political Identity in the European Union Furio Cerutti 2. The Problems of Identity and Legitimacy in the European Union: Is More Politics the Answer? Vivien A. Schmidt 3.Europe as a Narrative Network: Taking the Social Embeddedness of Identity Constructions Seriously Klaus Eder 4. European Identity and Support for European Integration Dieter Fuchs 5. Does the Power Exerted by the EU need a Legitimacy Based on the Citizens’ European Identity? Nicolas Levrat Part 2: Pathways to Identity Formation and Legitimacy Construction 6. Three European Constitutionalisms and their Respective Legitimacy Requirements: Explaining the Longue Durée Stability of the EU Polity Mario Teló 7. False Expectations: The Counterproductive Side Effects of the EU’s use of Political Symbols Albrecht Sonntag 8. Gaining European Legitimacy and Identity through Unlocking the Public Spheres of Nation States: The Case of The Netherlands Jos De Beus and Jeannette Mak 9. Mirrors of Us: European Political Identity and the Others’ Image of the EU Sonia Lucarelli 10. Public Visibility and Citizen Participation: The Europeanization of Foreign Policy Debates in the British and German Public Spheres Martin Federico Meyer 11. Debating Identity and Legitimacy in the EU: Concluding Remarks Sonia Lucarelli