Neither breathtaking nor pathbreaking: the European Commission's White Paper on Governance

The consequences of the European Commission's White Paper on Governance for the EU's institutional structure & future legitimacy are considered. An overview of the principal problems facing the EU regarding the notion of governance is presented, emphasizing the EU's attempt to pre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of international relations and development 2002-03, Vol.5 (1), p.6-23
Main Author: Horeth, Marcus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Democracy
Democratization
Europe
European Commission
European Union
Governance
Legitimacy
Legitimation
Multi-level governance
Political participation
Political Systems
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Summary:The consequences of the European Commission's White Paper on Governance for the EU's institutional structure & future legitimacy are considered. An overview of the principal problems facing the EU regarding the notion of governance is presented, emphasizing the EU's attempt to preserve legitimacy for its democratic political system. After discussing the problems identified by the Commission & its proposed solutions, the negative implications of the White Paper are addressed. Specifically, it is argued that the publication raises questions about whether civil society actors should be involved in political processes in order to strengthen democratic governance & whether the influence of individual member-states should be reduced in order to augment policy making efficiency. It is suggested that EU legitimacy can be achieved by inducing the EU to respect member-states' autonomy & by convincing member-states to value the Commission's proposed solutions to emergent dilemmas. 54 References. J. W. Parker
ISSN:1408-6980