THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF POLITICAL THEORY: DEMOCRACY AND LEGITIMACY
Keywords:
democracy, legitimacy, European Union, political systemAbstract
The European Union represents an entity that, due to its institutional architecture and to its modus operandi, poses a challenge to the fundamental concepts of political theory and demands, consequently, their re-evaluation. In this context, the present article represents an attempt to consider the European Union in relation to two long-established concepts of political theory – democracy and legitimacy. At the same time, considering the European Union as a product of voluntary integration at a supranational level, this paper addresses the question of the nature of the European Union, arguing the integration of the European structure in the category of political systems, although it has a series of characteristics that reinforce the assumption that it is neither a state nor an international organisation and, what is more, the a further deepening of the integration process will not bring it closer to either of the two conventional types of organisation.References
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