CEPS PhD SEMINAR /// 14TH JANUARY/// Legitimacy in the European Union: A Neo-republican Political Theological Approach by Ricardo Matos

[João Rodrigues]

Dear all,

We’re pleased to announce our next CEPS PhD seminar, scheduled for January 14th  (Wednesday), 15:00 Lisbon time,  with a talk by Ricardo Matos, entitled Legitimacy in the European Union: A Neo-republican Political Theological Approach. This seminar follows a hybrid format, so feel welcome to join us either at the CEPS Room or online through this link: https://zoom.us/j/95089219685?pwd=p11zSoGh04HxgDWp86dpDJv25bBDM1.1

Abstract: This paper analyses the problem of political legitimacy in the European Union from a neo-republican and political-theological perspective. It argues that sovereignty cannot be understood as an empirically unified or directly observable popular will. Instead, the sovereign emerges in an interstitial space between the theological-symbolic and the institutional-real, where political authority is mediated through representative institutions. Legitimacy thus derives from an interiority of the people that can only be imperfectly expressed in constitutional and institutional forms. Applied to the European Union, this framework exposes a fundamental difficulty: how to ground legitimate authority in a political order that lacks a unified demos and does not conform to the model of a classical parliamentary democracy.

The European project originated as a functional and anti-hegemonic arrangement rather than as a democratic polity, privileging technocratic governance and executive federalism. This institutional design has generated a persistent tension between democracy and technocracy, particularly as supranational institutions justify their authority through expertise, neutrality, and independence rather than direct electoral mandate. While technocracy may contribute to policy efficiency, it raises serious concerns regarding democratic legitimacy and political accountability. Drawing on neo-republican theory, the paper contends that legitimacy must be founded on freedom as non-domination and on conditions of political equality among both member states and European citizens. Asymmetric power relations between states undermine this republican ideal and foster relations of domination that obstruct the emergence of a European demos. The analysis further engages with Pierre Rosanvallon’s concept of the “crisis of equality,” showing how growing socio-economic inequalities erode democracy as a social form and weaken the solidaristic foundations necessary for collective political agency.

Finally, the paper identifies concrete legitimacy deficits in the European Union, including unequal electoral representation, nationally framed European elections, asymmetrical referenda, and limited citizen influence over executive decision-making. It concludes that European legitimacy requires a reconfiguration of democracy that reconciles popular sovereignty with institutional expertise, grounded in political equality, non-domination, and a shared civic belonging at the supranational level.

Bio: Ricardo Matos is a Medical doctor, ENT specialist, with a master's degree in Political Philosophy completed in 2024, he joined the doctoral program in Political Philosophy about a year ago in order to deepen his research work on the possibility of a true European identity based on the republican principle of freedom as non-domination.