Citizens’ Legitimation Discourses on European Integration

Abstract

Today, the questions raised by the process of European regional integration come down to an interrogation of the possibility, and for some the desirability, of its politicization (de Wilde 2011b; de Wilde and Zürn 2012). Politicization has recently become a ‘buzzword’ in European studies. This literature comprises and often combines two types of approaches; in her recent book on European legitimacy, Claudia Schrag Sternberg stresses the distinction:

Part of it is concerned with establishing the occurrence, analysing the nature, and explaining the causes of this development [politicization]. Another perspective argues that this process should be encouraged and emphasised for instrumental and/or normative reasons (Schrag Sternberg 2013: 221).

In a context marked by the increasing involvement of political and societal actors (political parties, social movements, interest groups) in the public debates on the content and objectives of European regional integration, it is assumed that the stakes have become clearer for European citizens, as these debates are relayed in national parliaments and media (Statham and Trenz 2013a). My chapter seeks to address this assumption empirically.