THE FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE ROLE SUPRANATIONAL PUBLIC SPHERE AND THE WELFARE STATE POLICIES

Öz

This paper focuses on the reasons of the legitimacy deficit of the European Union’s (EU) political institutions and explains why the EU is not considered as legitimate as the nation-states by the European citizens today. One key claim is that although the democratic participation in the decision making mechanisms and the welfare state policies have played a crucial in the nation-states’ legitimisation processes; these have been greatly lacking at the EU level. Instead of portraying the EU and the nation-state as two continuously conflicting sovereignty areas, this paper tries to formulate a theoretical political model for the EU which is inspired from the experiences of the nation-states. This proposed model (for solving the legitimacy deficit of the EU institutions) is based on communication, hybrid supranational identity and public sphere, which are backed by social policies at the supranational level.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• European Union
• Legitimacy Deficit
• Supranational Public- Sphere
• European Welfare-State Model

THE FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE ROLE SUPRANATIONAL PUBLIC SPHERE AND THE WELFARE STATE POLICIES

Öz

Bu makale Avrupa Birliği'nin (AB) siyasi kurumlarının meşruiyet açığı nedenleri üzerinde durmakta ve AB’nin, bugün, Avrupa vatandaşları tarafından ulus-devletler kadar neden meşru görülmediğini ortaya koymaya çalışmaktadır. Bu çerçevede, AB düzeyinde eksik olan en önemli husus olarak; ulus-devletlerin meşruiyet kazanım süreçlerinde de kilit rol oynayan; karar alma süreçlerine demokratik katılım ve refah devleti politikalarının yetersizliği, ortaya çıkmaktadır. Makale, ulus-devleti ve AB’yi sürekli çatışan iki egemenlik alanı olarak resmetmek yerine, ulusdevletlerin deneyimlerinden esinlenerek, AB için siyasal bir teorik model formüle etmeye çalışmaktadır. AB kurumlarının meşruiyet açığını azaltmak için önerilen bu model; uluslar-üstü düzeyde sosyal politikalarla desteklenen; iletişim temelli, hibrid uluslar-üstü bir kimlik ve kamusal alana dayanmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Avrupa Birliği
• Meşruiyet Açığı
• Uluslarüstü Kamusal Alan
• Avrupa Sosyal Devlet Modeli

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