What makes the EU legitimate? The effect of distance, leadership and psychology on peoples’ trust in the EU

Why do people support political leadership? With the increased support for populist and illiberal leaders in western society, this age-old question has gained new relevance (Laing 2021; Weber 1978 [1964]). While this question is usually raised in the national context, it is increasingly relevant for the European Union (EU). Over the past decade, the EU has faced an unprecedented sequence of crises that demanded common and decisive leadership while suffering from a legitimacy problem. In EU studies, the question of legitimacy has been approached predominantly from an institutional perspective and rarely focuses on the role individual leaders play in this. However, individual EU leaders - supranational and national – play an increasingly important role in determining the legitimacy of the EU in the eyes of the people. Moreover, the attribution of legitimacy to a ‘distant’ polity like the EU also has an important psychological dimension (Nielsen and Capelos 2018; Popper 2013; Ruchet 2011; Van Esch 'The nature of the european leadership crisis and how to solve it' 2017) Our paper draws upon insights from EU and leadership studies to gain a better understanding of citizens’ support for EU leadership as well as its effect on the legitimacy of the EU. It uses an unique survey of citizens attitudes towards different types of EU leaders in nine EU member states to explore the extent to which their evaluation of these leaders in terms of their ideological views, credibility or whether they are democratically elected – as well as (social) psychological factors - like social identification and emotions - play a role in peoples’ trust in the EU (Gooty et al. 2010; Haslam, Reicher, and Platow 2011; Van Zuydam 2018).