Perceived legitimacy towards the European Union

The European Union (EU) suffers from an increase in citizens’ discontent (Schweiger, 2017; Loveless & Rohrschneider, 2011). The appropriate remedy for this increase in citizens' discontent, however, remains the subject of scholarly debate (Steffek et al., 2007). Political authorities have been experimenting with possible remedies to counter this problem. One possibility, which is widely endorsed by governments, is the use of basic types of democracy (Geissel, 2012; Best et al, 2011). This study distinguishes between two basic types of democracy, namely direct democracy and participatory democracy (Best et al., 2011). The focus of this study resides on the effect that the use of these basic types of democracy have on the legitimacy of the European Union. After discussing the overarching concepts of democratic and legitimacy deficit in the literature review, this study will lay focus on the more subjective side of perceived legitimacy. Derived from the literature two hypotheses concerning 'direct' and 'participatory' democracy are formulated. After establishing a proper research design to structure the data collection and analysis, four cases are selected. Belgium and Sweden are chosen to conduct research on the effects of direct democracy. France and Germany are selected to conduct research on the effects of participatory democracy. The in-depth analysis of this study concludes that direct democracy, in contrast to expectations of the first hypothesis, has a negative impact on the perceived legitimacy of the EU. In line with the expectations of the second hypothesis, the effects of participatory democracy were found to have a more positive effect on perceived legitimacy. However, after consideration of the in-depth data of the cases, it is found that the answer to the second hypothesis is more nuanced. The effectiveness of participatory democracy is disputed due to two different observations, concerning the content and design of this method, made in the data.