Blaming Europe? - Responsibility Without Accountability in the European Union

- Comprehensive study of the attribution of responsibility in the EU - Explains why voters attribute credit and blame for policy outcomes to different levels of governance - Presents findings based on a unique set of data that gathers together both individual opinions from surveys in all 27 member states and experiments and political context - Important implications for debates on the quality of democratic accountability in the EU and the legitimacy of EU institutions A key component of democratic accountability is that citizens understand 'who is to blame'. Nonetheless, little is known about how citizens attribute responsibility in the European Union or how those perceptions of responsibility matter. This book presents the first comprehensive account of how citizens assign blame to the EU, how politicians and the media attempt to shift blame and finally, how it matters for electoral democracy. Based on rich and unique data sources, Blaming Europe? sheds light on all three aspects of responsibility in the EU. First, it shows that while institutional differences between countries shape citizen judgements of EU responsibility, those judgements are also highly determined by pre-existing attitudes towards the EU. Second, it demonstrates that neither politicians nor the media assign much blame to the EU. Third, it establishes that regardless of whether voters are capable of accurately assigning responsibility, they are not able to hold their EU representatives to account via the ballot box in European elections due to the lack of an identifiable 'European government' to reward or punish. As a consequence, when citizens hold the EU responsible for poor performance, but are unable to sanction an EU incumbent, they lose trust in the EU as a whole instead. In conclusion, it argues that this 'accountability deficit' has significant implications for the future of the European Union. Readership: Scholars and students of political science, especially those interested in political behaviour, electoral studies, democracy, and the EU.

Part One: Blaming the European Union? 1: Blaming Europe? 2: Who is responsible? Part two: Citizens and Blame 3: When do citizens get it right? 4: When do citizens get it wrong? Part Three: The Media, Politicians, and Blame 5: Who do the media blame? 6: Who do the media inform? 7: Who do politicians blame? Part Four: The Consequences of Blame 8: Does responsibility matter? 9: Conclusion: Responsibility without accountability Appendix Bibliography