Reconsidering Legitimacy in the context of the European Union : On how citizens accept (or not) a new political order.

One of the last major political change in the History of Europe is without any doubt the construction of the European Union. Since the EU is conceived as a political system similar to nation states, the question whether or not European citizens legitimise this new political order by their approval and loyalty has been of major concern. If, nowadays, normative theories on European legitimacy and citizens’ attitudes towards European integration are a well-established subject, few sociological studies have been published that seek to bring a “bottom-up” perspective on this matter. Nevertheless, the question of the legitimacy of political authority has been for long now of central concern in classical political sociology. This paper aims to describe and understand the structure and evolution of European legitimacy in interaction with the national legitimacies by tracing the factors that shape people’s attitudes towards European integration in three countries : France, Belgium and Great-Britain, these countries having a relatively long experience of EU membership. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to reach a few general conclusions and hypothesis regarding ‘legitimacy in the specific context of the European Union’. In order to study this question in these countries, our research will rely both on qualitative (focus groups realised in the three countries) and quantitative data (Eurobarometers).