Administrative legitimacy and the democratic deficit of the European Union

Abstract

This article suggests a new concept of measurement for the EU's oft-alleged democratic deficit based on two contributions. First, we turn attention to the administrative staff involved in policy-making rather than the (un)accountability of EUs' parliamentarians and executive agents. Second, building on the idea that policy-makers' legitimacy depends on the extent to which they can claim to represent some groups or social interests, we assess the extent to which Commission officials' preferences reflect European citizens' policy stance. Our results indicate a statistically significant positive correlation between the policy preferences of EU administrative staff and their home country population, which, we argue, can provide EU administrators a basic degree of legitimacy relative to their home country.

How pre‐ and postrecruitment factors shape role perceptions of European Commission officials

“…Background characteristics of officials become particularly important when “passive representation” leads to “active representation.” Passive or descriptive representation refers to shared characteristics along (usually sociodemographic) dimensions of interest, whereas active or substantive representation tends to refer to decision‐making processes in the interest, or on behalf, of the represented. Although recent work on representative bureaucracy has often uncovered a link between passive and active representation, both forms of representation need not necessarily occur jointly or be causally connected (Murdoch, Connolly, & Kassim, ; Murdoch, Trondal, & Geys, ). Crucially, however, this theoretical framework presupposes that individual presocialization outside organizations is key to account for the origins of roles inside organizations.…”

Follow the Leader? Leader Succession and Staff Attitudes in Public Sector Organizations

“…As a first robustness check, we replicate the analysis with an alternative operationalization of staff members' supranational attitudes. We thereby look at respondents' views on whether decision‐making authority within a given policy field should be located with the European Commission rather than national governments (Murdoch, Connolly, and Kassim ). The question reads, “We are interested in your views on the distribution of authority between member states and the EU on a range of policies.…”

International public administrations: a critique

“…Ensuring that this broad set of interests is fairly represented -not only politically but also administratively -is a key concern. Furthermore, international organizations' lack of direct democratic legitimacy may lead to an emphasis on administrative representation as an alternative source of legitimacy (Gravier 2013;Murdoch et al 2018). Having a representative administrative staff may enhance the legitimacy of an international organization by strengthening the loyalty of national elites to the organization, by allowing citizens equal access to administrative jobs, and by improving the relationship with clients (Christensen et al 2017).…”