The Politics of Blame in the European Union: Drivers, Responses, and Consequences

Abstract

Policymaking in the multi-level governance system of the European Union (EU) is increasingly contested in the public. Politicization has increased public attention to EU policies and, in particular, EU policy failures, thus incentivizing political actors in the EU – be they domestic or European, intergovernmental or supranational – to engage in European blame games. The complexity of the EU’s institutional structures not only complicates the public’s assessment of responsibility for political decisions, but also allows incumbent parties to claim credit for positive outcomes or shift the blame for negative outcomes onto the EU. In response to public criticism, EU institutions themselves, such as the European Commission, may face conflicting incentives to either clarify institutional responsibilities or engage in blurring strategies. This not only further complicates EU citizens’ ability to hold national-level and EU-level policymakers accountable but undermines the EU’s overall legitimacy. This panel aims at advancing our understanding of the drivers and consequences of public attribution of responsibility in the EU: Under which conditions does the public attribute responsibility for EU policies to national-level or EU-level policymakers? What drives national incumbents’ strategies for shifting blame or blurring the responsibility for negative outcomes and when are these strategies successful? How do EU-level policymakers such as the European Commission respond to this challenge? What are the overall consequences of public responsibility attributions to the accountability in the EU’s multi-level governance system? The contributions to this panel draw on a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches to provide answers to these questions.

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