This article is focused on two competing strains of legitimacy research in the European Union, taking as an example the discourse regarding the democratic deficit of the European Commission and the conceptualization of the EU as a regulatory state and not a democracy. The focus on the legitimacy of the European Commission is pressing due to the sudden rise in already established totalitarian tendencies in the European Union that were only hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper addresses the issue of how the European Commission is legitimizing itself when it’s not composed of directly elected members, by engaging with the democratic deficit theory and the regulatory state theory. By exploring the perception of EU legitimacy, this article can further the debate on what non-state actors and non-institutional actions can do to influence the EU’s legitimacy and the future of its democracy.

(DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16416636)