Some of the greatest challenges before the political unity of EU political integration comprise the European publics’ declining support for the EU project, and accordingly, the emerging phenomenon of the democratic deficit and the issue of institutional legitimacy. Historically, wars, conflicts, and economic depression stimulate the integration efforts. The recent economic downturn in Europe triggered political and social crises too. The European publics blame the European project for the last economic crisis since they are convinced that the integration policies led to economic and political crises. On the other hand, throughout European history, the historical legacy has been subject to reassessment after every major political and economic crisis in accordance with the international conjuncture. The European Union deferred democracy to get out of the depression, and encouraged the technocratic governments. This outcome has received so much criticism from European publics on the grounds that national governments lose control over domestic politics. European Union, particularly during periods of economic downturn, empowered technocratic governments instead of elected officials. Thus, political representatives and elites of the European publics have been rendered inefficient due to the decision mechanism run by technocrats. Moreover, such mechanism has operated to discredit the political elite by attributing the responsibility of the crises to the elected officials, and to dismiss them through electoral defeats. It has long been debated by the European publics that “EU technocracy” should be superseded by “European Union democracy”. In this respect, the aim of this paper is to analyze, from a historical perspective, how the phenomenon of democratic deficit and the institutional legitimacy problem are perceived by European publics. It is argued that the economic downturn is not as much related to spending and economic development policies as it is about the weaknesses of the European integration system and the EU’s institutional legitimacy problem. This paper seeks to demonstrate that those two issues continue to inform the European public opinion.
2013/ 
Sayı 6