Democratic deficit and its counter-movements: The eurocentric–eurosceptic divide in times of functional legitimacy

Euroscepticism is increasingly characterising the political systems of European Union member states. While Euroscepticism has been classically framed as a reaction to elitism and to a project of integration that has never really been supported “by the people”, recent studies have also started to think about Euroscepticism as the “Europeanised” apparition of a wider cosmopolitan–communitarian cleavage. Building on this body of literature, this chapter develops a theory of functional legitimacy that suggests that not only Euroscepticism was a long-predicted outcome of the process of integration, but also that it is an avoidable one. As the process of institutional integration advances, new competences and authority are acquired by the new centre; such a transfer of competences necessarily creates the condition for a shift-up of the well-known centre–periphery cleavage, generating a re-alignment in domestic political systems.