This thesis explores a relationship between democratic self-determination, universal human rights, and democratic legitimacy. States are democratically legitimate when they satisfy the first two terms of this relationship. However, these two terms are in tension. This tension is between the universal and particular natures of the terms and requires democratic procedures to provisionally resolve it. A universal human right can be interpreted and contextualized through such procedures to resolve this tension. I argue that the human right to free movement cannot be adequately contextualized in nation-state fora, but instead require an international democratic institution to perform this act. As a result, nation-states, in order to be legitimate, must give up control of their borders to the international institution so that they recognize the human right to free movement. A consequence of this is that Canadian immigration policy is insufficiently democratic and does not recognize the human right to free movement. / SSHRC

A crítica de Habermas à União Europeia no que concerne seu processo político de integração é de inegável importância na contribuição tanto do pensamento habermasiano quanto dos estudos europeus. Partindo-se desta premissa, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo abordar cronologicamente toda a reflexão do filósofo a fim de apresentar suas críticas nos momentos cruciais do bloco. Inicialmente, analisa-se o diagnóstico do autor do paradigma sistêmico no período de formação da união política, e sua resposta aos desafios do bloco à época: o patriotismo constitucional. Segue-se com os momentos da discussão do Tratado Constitucional e a inflexão da crítica habermasiana ao introduzir o conceito de solidariedade como perspectiva para as turbulências vividas pela União Europeia. Por fim, trata-se da crítica mais recente do filósofo com relação à atual estrutura política, firmada em Lisboa. Sua narrativa da juridificação democrática elucida como arquitetar uma teoria democrática transnacional que atenda às deficiências que o projeto de integração revelou. Ao final será esclarecido como Habermas enxerga as saídas da legitimidade democrática ao longo da integração europeia, sempre acompanhando o diagnóstico do autor seguido de suas respostas. / Habermas\'s criticism of the European Union (EU) in what regards its political process of integration is of undeniable importance in the contribution for both Habermas and European studies. In this regard, the present work aims to address chronologically the considerations of the philosopher in order to present his point of views regarding crucial moments of the EU development. Initially, we analyze Habermass diagnosis of a systemic paradigm within the period of the EUs political union formation, followed by his response to the challenges of the organization at the time, giving rise to the concept of constitutional patriotism. The work continues with the period of the discussion of the Constitutional Treaty and the turning point of the Habermasian critique by introducing the notion of solidarity as a perspective for the turbulences experienced by the EU. Finally, we turn to the author\'s more recent critique of the current political structure, established by the Lisbon Treaty. His narrative of democratic juridification elucidates how to architect a transnational democratic theory that meets the deficiencies that the integration project revealed. Finally it will be clarified how Habermas may explain possible perspectives for democratic legitimacy throughout European integration, always through the diagnosis made by the author, followed by his answers to the given problem.

A crítica de Habermas à União Europeia no que concerne seu processo político de integração é de inegável importância na contribuição tanto do pensamento habermasiano quanto dos estudos europeus. Partindo-se desta premissa, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo abordar cronologicamente toda a reflexão do filósofo a fim de apresentar suas críticas nos momentos cruciais do bloco. Inicialmente, analisa-se o diagnóstico do autor do paradigma sistêmico no período de formação da união política, e sua resposta aos desafios do bloco à época: o patriotismo constitucional. Segue-se com os momentos da discussão do Tratado Constitucional e a inflexão da crítica habermasiana ao introduzir o conceito de solidariedade como perspectiva para as turbulências vividas pela União Europeia. Por fim, trata-se da crítica mais recente do filósofo com relação à atual estrutura política, firmada em Lisboa. Sua narrativa da juridificação democrática elucida como arquitetar uma teoria democrática transnacional que atenda às deficiências que o projeto de integração revelou. Ao final será esclarecido como Habermas enxerga as saídas da legitimidade democrática ao longo da integração europeia, sempre acompanhando o diagnóstico do autor seguido de suas respostas. / Habermas\'s criticism of the European Union (EU) in what regards its political process of integration is of undeniable importance in the contribution for both Habermas and European studies. In this regard, the present work aims to address chronologically the considerations of the philosopher in order to present his point of views regarding crucial moments of the EU development. Initially, we analyze Habermass diagnosis of a systemic paradigm within the period of the EUs political union formation, followed by his response to the challenges of the organization at the time, giving rise to the concept of constitutional patriotism. The work continues with the period of the discussion of the Constitutional Treaty and the turning point of the Habermasian critique by introducing the notion of solidarity as a perspective for the turbulences experienced by the EU. Finally, we turn to the author\'s more recent critique of the current political structure, established by the Lisbon Treaty. His narrative of democratic juridification elucidates how to architect a transnational democratic theory that meets the deficiencies that the integration project revealed. Finally it will be clarified how Habermas may explain possible perspectives for democratic legitimacy throughout European integration, always through the diagnosis made by the author, followed by his answers to the given problem.

Dissertation thesis "Relationship between National Parliaments and the European Union" examines the impacts of the European integration on the national parliaments - the limitation of their functions and powers, measures undertaken to compensate these limitation in both the EU and the national law and the new roles of national parliaments in the context of European integration. The point of departure of the thesis is the notion of representative democracy as a still unsurpassed concept of a legitimate exercise of public authority. National parliaments mainly fulfil the controlling and legitimising function in the EU affairs. To this end, they have various legal instruments at their disposal. The fulfilment of these functions is limited by political and legal factors stemming from the nature of parliaments as political, not professional bodies and from their role in the national constitutional systems. Special attention is paid to the role of national parliaments in the evolving economic and monetary union. The general findings are confronted with the legal regulation and practice in the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

This thesis takes up the mantle of studying the Constitutional Treaty in the context of European Integration. This work examines how constitutionalization affected the process of European integration in relation to the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. Albert O. Hirschman&#039 / s Exit, Voice and Loyalty paradigm is used to assess and define the process of constitutionalization in the context of the supranational and intergovernmental tendencies of the European construct which birthed the democratic deficit in its foundational period. Special focus is allotted to the role of the European elites in drafting the Constitutional Treaty which was the culmination of their attempts to compensate for the foundational lack of democratic legitimacy. In order to make this assessment this thesis delineates the history of European integration. Furthermore, this work examines the European constitutional drive and evaluates the implications of the failed ratification process in correlation to the aforementioned issues. In conclusion this thesis maintains that the future feasibility of the constitutional project is directly related to the degree of democratic legitimacy achieved by the whole of the European Union.

This essay sets out to compare democratic legitimacy in three federal systems: United States of America (USA), European Union (EU) and Germany. The main question of the essay concerns the institutional design of the USA, EU and Germany's federal systems and how it is likely to affect democratic legitimacy. This main question is divided into four subqueries that lead the empirical analysis. These are: 1) What does the federal system's electoral process look like?, 2) How many voters do the federal systems have per mandate?, 3) In what ways do laws, rules and decisions create restrictions on the democratic process of the different systems?, and 4) Are there any changes and trends in development that may lead to weaker / stronger democratic legitimacy in the three federal systems? The essay is based on the assumption on legitimacy as a political concept and that it refers to whether people accept the political system's authority. The method for this essay is a comparative study using ‘most similar system design’. The empirical section includes collected material related to democratic legitimacy and the democratic process of the three federal systems, in relation to Robert Dahl's traditional democratic theory demonstrating five criteria a democratic process should achieve. It is difficult to measure to what extent the criteria in the traditional democratic theory are achieved, thus the empirical outcome is not comprehensive. However, it is possible to discuss the outcome and draw conclusions by studying the extent of legitimacy in the systems, in relation to each other. The empirical study thus shows that the German democratic process is more likely to fulfill a democratic process according to Robert Dahl’s democracy theory than the other two systems. USA tend to show more extensive restrictions for fulfilling the requirements of a democratic process than the other two systems. EU:s results is similar to USA, but does not have the same extensive restrictions. Therefore, Germany demonstrates a higher degree of democratic legitimacy than USA and EU do. USA demonstrates a lower degree of democratic legitimacy and EU:s democratic legitimacy is similar to USA. Our hypothesis, that the institutional structure of the system affects the outcome of democratic legitimacy, is thus confirmed in the study results.

Ever since the beginning of the European project, there was an urgent need to make the EU more citizen-friendly and responsive to the needs of citizens. In view of the deficit of EU democratic legitimacy, supranational institutions saw participation-based democracy as a response to this challenge. This is why, from 2001 onwards, the Commission developed a new communication and information strategy to foster debate and dialogue between EU administrations and Europeans. Within this context, the EU created the Europe Direct information centres (EDIC) which are EU local offices aiming at communicating and promoting participatory politics. This study explores if the EDIC in the Spanish autonomous community of Cantabria pursues participatory democracy and, consequently, if this centre contributes to tackling the crisis of democratic legitimacy in the EU. An interview and surveys are conducted to delve into the experience of the director of the centre and examine the opinion of users with regards to participation, political interest, satisfaction with the service, and so on. The hypothesis underlying this research is that this service has the potential for enhancing the political involvement of the Cantabrian population. The results obtained in this study confirm this assumption and indicate that this service is on the right track to achieve full participation. Besides this, the results reveal that the EDIC can reduce illegitimate practices in the EU. This thesis, therefore, presents the EDIC as a competent centre to locally assist the EU in strengthening the quality of democracy. This thesis stimulates further research and opens up new horizons in the field of European democracy.

1 Independent administrative agencies Abstract Independent administrative authorities have emerged as an alternative to the classical administration, which was interwoven with shortcomings resulting from its organization. The answer to some of these failings was to be the independence of agency, which promised to eliminate the risk of political or economic influence, promote greater transparency and efficiency through expert-based leadership. However, independent agencies, while proving to be functional, were set up chaotically and unconceptually across diverse states, leading to them being perceived as marginal anomalies rather than as having a key role in a state's administration. And yet they have been entrusted with the management of so many important areas of everyday life, such as personal data protection, audio-visual broadcasting, energy, competition, etc. Moreover, their unconceptual creation made it impossible for a long time for these agencies to be easily defined and described by their main characteristics, as each agency differed from the other. In addition, there was another problem - their cardinal feature, i.e. independence, became an area of legal friction, because in the classical European civil law we cannot allow an agency that would not be subject to the supreme body of executive power....

The European Union is suffering from a legitimacy crisis, which thus far has culminated with Great Britain’s decision to exit the union. According to the ‘opposition deficit thesis’, this is caused as there is no arena in which effective opposition can be voiced in the European Union, which forces EU citizens to organise their opposition outside the political system, and often against it. However, as no systemic analysis has been conducted on the opposition deficit in the EU’s democratic centre, no convincing conclusions has been made. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to systemically test the opposition deficit thesis, and to add to the current lack of research on the topic. The centre for any democratic legitimacy is the political system’s elected representatives in parliament, in which any opposition deficit would strongly indicate a democratic deficit. Therefore, I ask: is the European Parliament an arena for effective opposition? To test the opposition deficit systematically and empirically, data from 20 plenary debates between the years 2005-2007 in the European Parliament were gathered. Through simple statistical analysis, we conclude that most statements are oppositional (55 percent) and that there is no oppositional deficit. While most opposition is effective and thus has real effect in the policy-making process, the definition and operationalisation provided within the opposition deficit thesis must be refuted due to theoretical inconsistencies. Furthermore, oppositional behaviour at party- and individual level was also investigated, showing that Eurosceptic party groups are more oppositional than mainstream party groups and through their opposition minimise the European Union’s democratic deficit when voiced within the system. Also, we find that there is no significant relationship between gender and political opposition, contrary to past assumptions. Therefore, it is concluded that there is no oppositional deficit in the European Parliament, and possibly no such deficit in the European Union. So, while the European Union it is suffering a legitimacy crisis which may be caused by a democracy deficit, it is not correlated to political opposition as described by the opposition deficit thesis.

For municipalities to address challenges that come alongside a population decrease, inter-municipal cooperation is seen as an effective measure but, as this thesis shows, it comes not without a cost. This essay's thesis strives to investigate in what ways inter-municipal cooperation affects democratic legitimacy. To do so, a document analysis is applied on a large number of different relevant documents such as audit reports, annual reports and board minutes. The documents are analyzed through a lens of three legitimating dimensions, input, throughput and output. The analysis results in several interesting observations. Firstly, by being part of a joint committee, the municipality receives a lower input-value. Secondly, there are tendencies that when entering inter-municipal cooperation, the operation becomes less transparent and thereby obtains a low throughput-value. Thirdly, there are weak tendencies that inter-municipal cooperation causes the operation to work somewhat more efficiently and will thereby obtain slightly higher output-value. The analysis concludes that yes, the democratic legitimacy does get affected by inter-municipal cooperation, but whether it is for the better or worse depends on the individual trade-off between the values.