Democratic Legitimacy across the Pond: Citizen Engagement in the US and the EU

• In Event: Civic Engagement Models and Practices

Abstract

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) share a common objective: enhancing the democratic legitimacy of their institutions. As democratic institutions are supposed to represent the people, they derive a significant part of their legitimacy from citizen participation in decision-making processes and policy choices. If citizen engagement in the decision-making processes is frail, then the governing institutions’ input legitimacy, i.e., legitimacy deriving from governance by the people, is harder to build and can shrink. Without overlooking the differences between the two political systems, this paper discusses the role of citizen participation in the enhancement of institutions’ input legitimacy to understand how the US and the EU can learn from each other’s practices. First, the paper looks into the concept of input legitimacy, its relationship with democratic governance, and its interactions with other sources of legitimacy. Then, it deals with the importance of citizens’ engagement with civic and political life for input legitimacy. Next, it dives into the state of input legitimacy in the US and EU political arenas by assessing three variables: the voter turnout in the last five European Parliament (2004-2024) and US presidential elections (2008-2024), citizen engagement with civil society, and citizen trust in institutions (2008-2023). Finally, it discusses the results and considers how the US and the EU can learn from each other to reimagine and enhance their institutions’ input legitimacy.

Author

• Annie Niessen, University of Liege