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the nature of the european leadership crisis and how to solve it

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Abstract

Observers of the European Union (EU) agree that it suffers from a leadership crisis. However, diagnoses of the precise nature of this crisis vary: some lament the lack of strong, visionary leaders, while others argue that the EU suffers from too much elite leadership. This article takes issue with both diagnoses and argues that the root of Europe’s leadership crisis lies in the misfit between the nature of EU leadership and the legitimating logic it is rooted in. All leadership implies inequality and therefore requires solid justification especially in the democratic European context. However, at the European level, the vectors of legitimacy that provide such justification are weak and contradictory, thereby tempting leaders to overstep the level of justification bestowed on them. Making use of ideological and identity leadership may help European leaders overcome the misfit between leadership and legitimacy that lies at the root of the leadership crisis.

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Notes

  1. See Van Esch and Swinkels (2015) for an overview of studies attesting to this.

  2. Prevention of German hegemony was also a prime motivation for the German leaders (Van Esch, 2012; Dyson et al, 1995).

  3. The vector of indirect legitimacy takes a systemic perspective and argues that the EU’s legitimacy rests upon the legitimacy of its ‘component states, on its respect for their sovereignty, and on its ability to serve their purposes’. Procedural legitimacy refers to the legitimacy inferred by the ‘observance of due process and given rights’ and is an essential part of the electoral and technocratic vector (Lord and Magnette, 2004: 185–87, see below).

  4. See the explanatory video ‘The Speech that Made Obama President’ of his 2004 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston by THNKR (http://youtu.be/OFPwDe22CoY).

  5. In addition, the ECB’s interventions indirectly put additional financial burden on the European taxpayers and were deemed by some to violate the European treaties. They were therefore also perceived to constitute a transgression of the ECB’s technocratic authority. Aware of the dangers of being seen as a political actor to the authority of the ECB, Draghi continuously urged political leaders to take the responsibility to solve the crisis.

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Correspondence to femke van esch.

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van esch, f. the nature of the european leadership crisis and how to solve it. Eur Polit Sci 16, 34–47 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2015.114

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