EU referenda in Greece and the UK: Questions of legitimacy
Light lunch provided
Considering the increasing dependence of EU politics from the domestic context of member-states, this theoretical essay suggests that we need to rethink EU referenda’s legitimacy both at national and supranational levels, and according to the type of the referendum. Unlike research on EU referenda that is mostly informed by direct democracy, the paper employs the agonistic democracy approach due to the latter’s normative imperative for citizens to have an effective say in their governance. Discussion proceeds as follows. The first section critically comments on seminal readings of EU legitimacy. The section that follows presents the basic features of agonistic democracy, and its value-added for assessing EU referenda’s legitimacy. The third section comparatively explores the recent Greek and British EU referenda to demonstrate ensuing legitimacy problems at national and supranational levels. The concluding remarks capitalize on the present analysis to raise broader reflections on legitimacy issues in the EU.
Date:
30 January 2020, 12:30
Venue:
St Antony's College - North Site
Venue Details:
Seminar Room
Speakers:
Speaker to be announced
Organising department:
European Studies Centre
Organiser:
Julie Adams (St Antony's College, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
julie.adams@sant.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Kalypso Nicolaïdis (University of Oxford)
Part of:
South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX)
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Julie Adams
