Assessing the Impact of Membership Turnover on Constituent Views of the European Parliament

Daniel, William; Metzger, Shawna

Abstract

This chapter examines the attitudinal dimension of input legitimacy in the EU. It investigates the relationship between personnel turnover in the European Parliament (EP) and citizens’ attitudes toward the EP since the start of direct elections in 1979. European citizens generally see the EP as a “second-order” institution whose importance pales in comparison with that of national institutions. At the same time, the EP is characterized by high levels of personnel turnover, with many of its members exiting the legislature prior to the end of their elected mandate. We address whether nationally divergent patterns of turnover affect the ways that citizens view the EP. We find some evidence that early exit from the EP negatively affects the attitudinal dimension of input legitimacy. We find, however, that this effect has weakened as the EU has grown larger.

Citation

Daniel, W., & Metzger, S. (2021). Assessing the Impact of Membership Turnover on Constituent Views of the European Parliament. In J. A. Scherpereel (Ed.), Personnel Turnover and the Legitimacy of the EU (35-58). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60052-5_2

• Online Publication Date: Sep 29, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: Jun 28, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 30, 2023
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 35-58
• Series Title: Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics
• Series ISSN: 2662-5873
• Book Title: Personnel Turnover and the Legitimacy of the EU
• Chapter Number: 2
• ISBN: 9783030600518
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60052-5_2
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5745513
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-60052-5_2
• Related Public URLs: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030600518#aboutBook
• Contract Date: Jun 7, 2021