Revisiting the Democratic Foundations of European Integration During the Permacrisis

Abstract

AbstractThe European Union (EU) has experienced several shocks in recent years. During this time, its performance as crisis manager was not consistent; in some cases, like the Eurocrisis and the refugee crisis, its handling cannot be considered successful, while in others, like the pandemic and, up to a point, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU’s performance was undoubtedly better. Given the EU’s inconsistent performance across different crisis episodes, we employ Easton’s diffuse support concept, to gauge the impact of permacrisis, as an extended period of stress and insecurity, on citizens’ support for European integration. We use Eurobarometer data on different aspects of public attitudes vis-à-vis the EU during the last 15 years. The findings show that overall, the EU seems to have benefited in terms of popular support, strengthening thereby its democratic legitimacy. On the other hand, the share of people who state that they do not trust the EU or that they are dissatisfied with the way democracy works in the EU has also risen over time. In other words, we observe a bifurcation of citizens’ attitudes, whereby both positive and negative answers have risen. This outcome is consistent with the idea that the EU has become more politicized during a period marked by successive crises.