Knowledge of the EU and citizen participation in European governance: an agonistic democracy perspective

This article examines how knowledge of the EU affects citizen participation in European governance. Drawing upon the theoretical approach of agonistic democracy and discerning EU awareness from EU political knowledge, the article argues that absence of the former limits the political capacity of citizen participation in European governance, while absence of the latter restrains its normative potential. The narrative starts with a brief overview of the existing literature on knowledge of the EU and introduces the distinction between EU awareness and EU political knowledge. It continues with the basic features of agonistic democracy, referring in particular to citizen participation and questions about knowledge. The third section of the essay puts in use the distinction between awareness and political knowledge to show how the two impact on the political capacity and normative potential of civic involvement in EU politics. The concluding section summarises the article’s main points and proposes new research pathways for the sub-discipline of EU democracy.