An Indirect Legitimacy Argument for a Directly Elected European Parliament

Chris Lord argues in this article 'An Indirect Legitimacy Argument for a Directly Elected European Parliament' that a directly elected European Parliament could help national democracies meet their own obligations to their own demoi to secure conditions of democratic self-government. 

Abstract

Can a directly elected European Parliament help deliver standards by which the European Union can be indirectly legitimated through its component national democracies? This article argues that the Union can be indirectly legitimate where it helps member state democracies meet their own obligations to their own publics. The Union can do just that by managing externalities in ways needed to secure core values of justice, democracy and freedom from arbitrary domination within member states. Yet that poses a predicament: for if any one member state has an interest in imposing negative externalities or in freeriding on positive externalities provided by another, then so may its voters and democratic institutions. The article argues a directly elected European Parliament can help manage that predicament both by identifying externalities and by ensuring their regulation meets standards of public control, political equality and justification owed to individual national democracies.

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Christopher Lord
An Indirect Legitimacy Argument for a Directly Elected European Parliament

European Journal of Political Research, online, 2017
DOI: 10.1111/1475-6765.12204

Open Access (link)

Published Mar. 15, 2017 10:28 AM - Last modified Feb. 2, 2022 5:07 AM