In order to be simultaneously effective and liberal, governments must normally be able to count on voluntary compliance - which, in turn, depends on the support of socially shared legitimacy beliefs. In Western constitutional democracies, such beliefs are derived from the distinct but coexistent...

In order to be simultaneously effective and liberal, governments must normally be able to count on voluntary compliance - which, in turn, depends on the support of socially shared legitimacy beliefs. In Western constitutional democracies, such beliefs are derived from the distinct but coexistent...

Legitimationsbedürftig ist herrschaftliches Handeln, das die Präferenzen oder Interessen der Betroffenen verletzt. In demokratischen politischen Systemen kann solches Handeln entweder inputorientiert durch Bezug auf die kollektiven Präferenzen oder output-orientiert durch Bezug auf die...

Estimates of the comparative health of the North Americanand Western European economies and societies have had their fashion cycles -from Servain-Schreiber's warnings that Europe was falling behind, rather thancatching up with, American technological leadership in the 1960s, to...

This Working Paper is an attempt, occasioned by the evaluation of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, to provide a conceptual framework within which institute research on multi-level European problem solving could be discussed in the context of a more comprehensive overview of...

Judge-made law has played a crucial role in the process of European integration. In the vertical dimension, it has greatly reduced the range of autonomous policy choices in the member states, and it has helped to expand the reach of European competences. At the same time, however, 'Integration...

The paper begins by examining the functions of input-oriented and output-oriented legitimating arguments in liberal democracies. At the European level, input-oriented arguments remain weak, but legitimacy problems are generally avoided since the policies which can in fact be adopted under...

The text is a comment on the White Paper on European Governance presented by the European Commission (COM[2001] 428, 25.7.2001). It begins by confronting the Commission's emphases with the governance problems that it fails to address, including the unresolved difficulties of economic-policy...

The function of legitimacy is to ensure voluntary compliance with unwelcome exercises of governing authority. Since practically all European law needs to be implemented and enforced by the governments and courts of the member states, the EU does not have to face its citizens directly. It follows...