To be legitimate or not to be: EU policies and their feedback effects on citizens

This paper tackles the much-debated issue of the legitimacy of the European Union, but adds a twist: it focuses on the public policy-public opinion nexus. Do European policies contribute to legitimizing the EU in the eyes of citizens? This paper suggests that the characteristics of EU policies partly explain the very existence of effects of legitimization of the EU in the eyes of citizens, as well as the legitimizing or de-legitimizing nature of these effects. The results lead us to stress the non-automatic character of these policy feedbacks, since policies may have no effect at all. Empirically, the paper is based on the comparison of social, environmental, and agricultural policies in five EU countries: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.