The Limits of EUropean Legitimacy : On Populism and Technocracy. Introduction to the Special Issue

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F21%3A00121842" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/21:00121842 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.jcer.net/index.php/jcer/article/view/1237/912" target="_blank" >https://www.jcer.net/index.php/jcer/article/view/1237/912</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.30950/jcer.v17i2.1237" target="_blank" >10.30950/jcer.v17i2.1237</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Limits of EUropean Legitimacy : On Populism and Technocracy. Introduction to the Special Issue

Original language description

This article introduces the special issue on populism and technocracy in the integration and governance of the European Union (EU), framing these opposing approaches in the context of polarised debate on the (il)legitimacy of the EU. The special issue was conceived as an interdisciplinary approach to questions of the EU’s legitimacy in the aftermath of structural crises (the eurozone, sovereign debt and the election and appointment of governing agents) and spontaneous crises (migration, external state and non-state security challenges, Brexit and Euroscepticism). Since the special issue’s conception the unanticipated Covid-19 pandemic, and responses from the EU and its member states (current and former) starkly illuminated debates on how the EU should operate, the limits of its power and the limits of its popular legitimacy. The era of passive consensus has been replaced by claims of legitimacy based on active expert-informed intervention, alongside populist claims of the EU’s inherent illegitimacy as an undemocratic technocracy. As such the special issue’s objective is to critically analyse manifold ways in which the populist-technocratic divide is narrated and performed in different regions, disciplines, and social and political systems in an era of growing internal and external challenges to the Union. We observe that the EU’s institutions remain highly adaptable in responding to challenges, but that member-states have continued and accelerated a tendency to nationalise success and Europeanise failure, with the EU acting as a perennial scapegoat largely due to the ease with which it can be narrated as a site of projection for mistrust, resentment, and social grievances. We argue that the relationship between populism and technocracy is rapidly evolving from an imagined binary into a much more fluid, overlapping, and reversible set of political narratives. We conclude that despite the changing nature of populist-technocratic debates and the resilience and adaptability of the EU, it faces accelerating challenges to its legitimacy in the new era of ‘politics of necessity’.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_SC - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50601 - Political science

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Contemporary European Research

ISSN

1815-347X

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

17

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

75-86

UT code for WoS article

000665769200001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85109434825