Europe in Search of Legitimacy: Strategies of Legitimation Assessed ERIK ODDVAR ERIKSEN AND JOHN ERIK FOSSUM ABSTRACT . In this article, we assess three explicit strategies (based on three logics of political integration) as possible solutions to the European Union’s legitimacy problems. The first strategy amounts to a scaling down of the ambitions of the polity-makers in the European Union (EU). The second strategy emphasizes the need to deepen the collective self-understanding of Europeans. These two modes of legitimation figure strongly in the debate on aspects of the EU, but both have become problematic. The third strategy concentrates on the need to readjust and heighten the ambitions of the polity-makers so as to make the EU into a federal multicultural union founded on basic rights and democratic decision-making procedures. Taking stock of the ongoing constitution-making process, the authors ask how robust such an alternative is and how salient it is, as opposed to the other two strategies. Keywords: • Citizenship • Deliberation • Democracy • European identity • Legitimacy Introduction Today’s Europe is marked by deep changes. One of the most remarkable developments is the rapid pace of integration, which promises to alter fundamentally the political geography of Europe. The rate of change is astounding given the uncertainties and disagreements as to the future design of the European Union (EU) and the rest of Europe. It is astounding also given the many challenges currently facing the EU. These result from the EU’s successes, as much as from its failures. As its main achievements, the EU has succeeded in entrenching peace and has established the Single Market and Monetary Union. It is still, however, generally recognized that the EU suffers from important legitimacy deficiencies. 1 These are linked not only to aspects of the EU’s structural and institutional make-up, but also to the normative justifications that it can International Political Science Review (2004), Vol 25, No. 4, 435–459 DOI: 10.1177/0192512104045089 © 2004 International Political Science Association SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)