Personnel Turnover and the Legitimacy of the EU, 1st ed. 2021
Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics Series

This book examines the effects of personnel turnover in European Union institutions. Individuals enter and exit EU institutions with remarkable frequency, and questions involving institutional personnel lie at the heart of populist and feminist critiques of the EU. Are these critiques accurate? How do personnel dynamics affect the EU?s legitimacy? Will changing patterns of turnover help to redeem the EU? Personnel Turnover addresses these issues by considering turnover?s effects on three aspects of legitimacy (input, throughput, and output). Authors use a common framework to explore various questions: Does turnover affect the ways that EU citizens see the EU or the likelihood that citizens will participate in EU elections? Does turnover affect the efficiency of the EU decision-making or the EU?s ability to promote its interests abroad? In tackling these contemporary subjects, the authors throw light on a classical question?what difference does it make when political leaders are replaced?

1.      Chapter 1: Introduction: Personnel Turnover and the Legitimacy of the European Union 

Chapter 2: Assessing the Impact of Membership Turnover on Constituent Views of the European Parliament 

3.      Chapter 3: Turnover, Turnout, and Input Legitimacy in the EU 

Chapter 4: Personnel Turnover and Legislative Efficiency in the EU 

Chapter 5: Losing Women, Losing Power? Gender, Turnover, and EU Legislation 

Chapter 6: The Importance of Being Expert: Political Careers, Personnel Turnover, and Throughput Legitimacy in the European Parliament 

7.      Chapter 7: Making a Hasty Brexit? Turnover and Brexit Negotiations 

8.      Chapter 8: Turnover, Conditionality, and Europeanization in the Western Balkans 

John A. Scherpereel is Professor of Political Science at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, USA. The author of Governing the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Between State Socialism and the European Union, his research focuses on executive politics, legislative politics, and political representation.

Investigates the personnel dimension of the EU by looking at turnover in various institutions

Claims that personnel turnover in EU institutions affects throughput and output legitimacy, but not input legitimacy

Highlights that that gender imbalances imperil the EU’s effectiveness, efficiency, and ability to meet citizens’ needs