Political Legitimacy and the Invisibility of Politics
Exploring the European Union’s Communication Deficit
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7877445 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christoph Meyer (0009-0000-6010-300X), Christoph O Meyer (0000-0001-5649-4124, University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 617-639 |
| Publication date | 1999-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9886 • E-ISSN: 1468-5965 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-5965.00199 |
| OpenAlex | W2148693067 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 97 |
The debate about the legitimacy deficit of the European Union (EU) has so far devoted little attention to the role of political communication in legitimating governance. The resignation of the Commission has highlighted the consequences of communicative failure and points to the new role of the media in EU affairs. The article analyses and evaluates the Commission’s media communicationand places it in the context of the EU’s broader institutional set‐up and decision‐making procedures. The article argues that the Commission’s public communication suffers from the fragmentation of political authority, a pervading technocratic mindset and a lack of adequate staffing. More importantly, however, the Commission is located within a system of governance which depoliticizes conflict and obfuscates political accountability. This system has been used by Member States to circumvent public scrutiny and externalize public dissatisfaction to the Commission
Accountability · Commission · Context (archaeology · Democracy · democratic deficit · Economics · European union · Legitimacy · Political communication · Political science · Politics · Scrutiny · Technocracy · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Public Administration
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European Blame Games
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A community text pattern in the European commission press release? A generic and genetic view
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Mediatization and Government Communication
El cuerpo del delito
Quelle légitimité pour l'Union européenne
Le mariage de la carpe et du lapin ? Une sociologie politique de la Commission européenne en chantier
How political malpractice affects trust in EU institutions
Participer… et après
The European Public Sphere Does Not Exist (At Least It's Worth Wondering…)
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Media Coverage on European Governance
Single-issue Ratifiers or Political Deliberators
Finding Europe
A Bird’s Eye View
Second-Order Evaluations of the European Court of Human Rights
Mediated Personalization of Executive European Union Politics
Towards the European(-ised) Public Sphere
Beyond the Eurosceptic/Europhile Divide
Reporting the European Union
Greek Correspondents and EU
Ethnic minorities, cultural difference and the cultural politics of communication
Légitimer l'Europe sans Bruxelles
Public opinion in the EU institutions’ discourses on EU legitimacy from the beginnings of integration to today
EU Communication in the Member States
Second-Rate Election Campaigning? An Analysis of Campaign Styles in European Parliamentary Elections
French public opinion on the European Union’s Eastern enlargement and public-elite relations
An emerging EU strategic narrative? Twitter communication during the EU’s sustainable energy week
News media representations of a common EU foreign and security policy. A cross-national content analysis of CFSP coverage in national quality newspapers
No effect, weapon of the weak or reinforcing executive dominance? How media coverage affects national parliaments’ involvement in EU policy-formulation
Unraveling romance
Media relations in the Council of the European Union
Television Reporting of Second-Order Elections
A Journalistic Deficit
The Eu
In Search of Europe
The European Community's Public Communication Policy 1951–1967
Public Accountability and the Public Sphere of International Governance
The Role of Agenda Setting in Pension Market Integration
Public communication and strategic planning
Bridging the Gap’ between EU Politics and Citizens? The European Commission, National Media and EU Affairs in the Public Sphere
Explaining Low Turnout in European Elections
Knowing is not loving
More national less European? The comparison of the last two general elections in Turkey
Let's Talk about Europe
The Europeanization of Mediterranean journalistic practices and the Italianization of Brussels
The European paradox
Performing Authority in Times of Crisis
Responsibility under Pressure
The Gravity of Foreign News Coverage in the EU
Tensions entre rationalité technique et intérêts politiques
A Spiral of Euroscepticism
Television Coverage of the 1999 European Parliamentary Elections
Research Design in European Studies
EU Public Legitimation in the Social Media Era
Who Decides in the Council of the European Union
Balanced or Biased? Interest Groups and Legislative Lobbying in the European News Media
The Operating Logics of National Parliaments and Mass Media in the Politicisation of Europe
Social media in/and the politics of the European Union
Does European Union politics become mediatized? The case of the European Commission
News on the move
The rhetoric of the President of the European Commission
Media Effects on Public Opinion about the Enlargement of the European Union
Why European Commissioners Matter
Segmented Europeanization
The Europeanization of Media Discourse
Is the European Union legitimate? To what extent
Cross-border mobility and European identity
The News Coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary Election Campaign in 25 Countries
Explaining the visibility of EU citizens
Who inhabits the European public sphere? Winners and losers, supporters and opponents in Europeanised political debates
Party contestation and Europe on the news agenda
Explaining Citizens’ Participation in a Transnational European Public Sphere
New Parties in Government
Public Support for Referendums
The Impact of EU Referenda on National Electoral Politics
Selective reception of external strategic narratives
Blessing or Curse for Advocacy? How News Media Attention Helps Advocacy Groups to Achieve Their Policy Goals
The legal regulation of political parties
Second-order’ institutions
The hard side of soft policy co-ordination in EMU
The EU as a ‘Framing Actor’
EU Politics on Television News
Information effects and mass support for EU policy control
Voice and Access
EU executives on social media
Framing Serbia
The impact of information acquisition on EU performance judgements
To Know it is to Love it
Development and Validation of a Democratic System Justification Scale
Addressing climate change
| Unique citing works | 97 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,73 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2025 (26) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 96 |