Key literature on theoretical research of EU-Legitimacy (f.e. Kielmannsegg 1996,
Blondel et al. 1998, Katz und Weßels 1999, Scharpf 1999, Thomassen und Schmidt
1999, Fuchs 2003) suggests a profound de-legitimation of the European Union. But
the question on how to empirically measure the perceptions of legitimacy is highly
controversial in the German literature (Zürn 2011a, 2011b, Schmidtke/ Schneider
2012, Padberg 2013, Zürn 2013).
The standardized questionnaire traditionally is the methodological procedure in
empirical research on legitimacy as well as in research on political culture. But there
are frequent discussions about the deficits of these standardized methods in political
culture research (Pickel 2006, Lauth et al. 2009) and if research on legitimacy should
be understood as measuring or evaluation (Zürn 2011a, 2011b, Padberg 2013, Zürn
2013). Beside the discussion on the appropriate database, these debates on the
design of empirical research of legitimacy will be developed further in this paper.
The paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the different models of
empirical research on legitimacy. Additionally the paper will develop an alternative
approach where the people’s perceptions of the similarities of an observable
phenomenon (governance structure) and the own normative values (what is
legitimate) are compared in the process of Repertory Grid Interviews. Repertory Grid
offers a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods for this kind of research.
As the initial data is qualitative, it reduces the linguistic and cultural equivalence
problems. The data analysis is qualitative as well as quantitative. Individual data is
transferred to the macro level, which allows for comparability and transferability of the
results from the sample to a larger group. The paper discusses in how far Repertory
Grid can facilitate the bridging between empirical research on legitimacy as
measurement and evaluation (Padberg 2013), as it does not work with
questionnaires drawn up beforehand nor with prepared response scales, but with the
respondent’s own words and response scales.
The paper will introduce the Repertory Grid method as an interface of the different
approaches in a first step and explain the theoretical background, data collection and
analysis of Repertory Grid. The conclusion will place the results in the general
context of the debate and discuss future perspectives of research on EU’s legitimacy
