Democratic Legitimacy in the Era of Fiscal Integration
16 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2014 Last revised: 5 Mar 2016
Date Written: April 30, 2015
Abstract
While several countries still struggle to return to sustainable growth and Euroscepticism has shown its strength during the 2014 European Elections, Europe is slowly advancing on the path of fiscal integration. Against this background, this paper reassesses how legitimacy is provided and why the much-needed fiscal integration constitutes a genetic change of the Union. The first section is dedicated to theories of legitimacy in the EU; the second section focuses on the financial and economic crisis, pointing out why some form of fiscal integration is still required to achieve a sustainable settlement; the third section sheds light on the interactions between democratic legitimacy and fiscal integration when the no demos thesis is taken into account, discussing the long term implication of the emerging trilemma.
Keywords: European Union, Fiscal Integration, Euroscepticism, Democracy
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