JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies · 1999 · 283 citations · 0 references
Social SciencesPolitical CommunicationPolitical ScienceGovernment CommunicationMass CommunicationPolitical Communication Research MethodsAccountabilityEuropean GovernanceEuropean IntegrationEuropean Media StudiesEuropean PoliticsEuropean Public PolicyAccountability Of Member StatesEuropean Media SystemsEuropean Union PoliticsLegitimacy Of Political AuthorityPolitical Legitimacy ClaimsPublic Communication Analysis
The EU legitimacy debate has largely ignored how political communication shapes legitimacy, a gap underscored by the Commission’s resignation and the media’s emerging role. The article aims to analyze and evaluate the Commission’s media communication within the broader EU institutional and decision‑making context. The authors assess the Commission’s media communication by situating it within EU governance structures and decision‑making procedures. The study finds that the Commission’s public communication is hampered by fragmented authority, a technocratic mindset, and insufficient staffing, and that the EU governance system depoliticizes conflict, obscures accountability, and allows Member States to sidestep scrutiny.
The debate about the legitimacy deficit of the European Union (EU) has so far devoted little attention to the role of political communication in legitimating governance. The resignation of the Commission has highlighted the consequences of communicative failure and points to the new role of the media in EU affairs. The article analyses and evaluates the Commission’s media communicationand places it in the context of the EU’s broader institutional set‐up and decision‐making procedures. The article argues that the Commission’s public communication suffers from the fragmentation of political authority, a pervading technocratic mindset and a lack of adequate staffing. More importantly, however, the Commission is located within a system of governance which depoliticizes conflict and obfuscates political accountability. This system has been used by Member States to circumvent public scrutiny and externalize public dissatisfaction to the Commission.