Rediscovering Europe in the Netherlands - St Antony's College ...

safeguards and direct citizen participation
tors – in eu policy and the feeling that eu policy is just being imposed on
them. Thus both instruments may not only serve to strengthen the representative
and accountability dimension of legitimacy, but also, albeit in the
longer term, foster processes of identification.
Moreover, preferenda and constitutional safeguards are interesting for their
potential to mobilise actors outside the political and administrative circuits
and thus to appeal to citizens. The extensive discussions which can be
awakened by preferenda may motivate interest groups to gauge the views
of their supporters and to enter into debate with their members. Civil society
organisations are encouraged to step outside of their one-dimensional,
specialist consultations with the government at the European or national
level. Politicians who take positions and enter into debates on eu issues in
the context of preferenda or constitutional debates also (precisely because
of the serious nature of the instruments) generate media attention. This
can give rise to a catalyst effect which culminates in a major impulse for the
regular politicians and policy makers to contribute to the improvement of
eu policy legitimisation in the Netherlands.
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