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Full Description
Representative democracy remains the best available form of government - and the one preferred by most EU citizens, but satisfaction with how it plays out varies greatly across the continent. Among the perceived weaknesses are high levels of political corruption, low resilience to disinformation, and out-of-touch governing elites.
Yet there is some hope that direct channels for citizens to express their concerns and preferences, fact-based deliberation in representative bodies and robust mechanisms to hold governments to account can help save European democracy from the onslaught of populism.
This volume draws together proposals into a framework reflecting the four cumulative criteria used by modern political theorists to assess the health of a democracy: inclusion, choice, deliberation and impact. Its expert contributors offer pragmatic ideas to strengthen representative democracy at both the national and EU level.
This is the third and final book produced in the framework of the Towards a Citizens' Union project co-funded by the EU's Erasmus+ Programme. It is the product of collaboration with 20 renowned think tanks from the European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN).
Contents
1.Democracy as ecosystem Steven Blockmans
2. Efficiency, authority and representation Daniel Smilov
3. Democracy and its discontents: European attitudes to representative democracy and its alternatives Jacek Kucharczyk and Filip Pazderski
4. The emotional landscape of European voters Catharina Sørensen and William Rohde Madsen
Part I. Representative Democracy
5. Improving representativeness in Europe: A story of missed and future opportunities Dídac Gutiérrez-Peris and Héctor Sánchez Margalef
6. Transparency in EU decision-making: Under growing pressure, more important than ever Tuomas Iso-Markku
7. Alignment of national parties and European party federations Jan Kovár, Zdenek Sychra and Petr Kratochvíl
8. How to Appoint a Commission President: The revised lead candidate procedure Sophia Russack
9. How can European Affairs Committees be strengthened? Iveta Kazoka and Sintija Tarasova
10. Revising the Early Warning System to reinforce the 'third chamber' of EU multi-level law-making Filippa Chatzistavrou and Konstantinos Papanikolaou
11. COSAC's (untapped) potential Paula Lamoso González
12. EU democracy in an era of a changing media environment and disinformation Stefan Schaller, Paul Schmidt and Susan Milford-Faber
13. Democratic backsliding: The role of political corruption Aneta Világi and Pavol Baboš
14. The rule of law: Bastion of democracy, or barrier to it? Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska and Ian Bond
Part II. Direct Democracy
15. National referendums: Between legitimate popular decision-making and populist takeover Atanas Slavov
16. An EU-wide referendum: Potential threat or tool of empowerment? Eleonora Poli
17. The European Citizens' Initiative and its reform: Truly unique or the same old story? Minna Ålander and Nicolai von Ondarza
18. Modern petitions for modern European democracies Elizabete Vizgunova
19. Europe's deliberative instruments: Has the EU delivered? Wojciech Bialozyt and Romain Le Quiniou
20. How can technology facilitate citizen participation in the EU? Mihai Sebe, Bogdan Mure?an and Eliza Va?
Part III. Conclusions
21. Patterns and particularities in European democracy Richard Youngs
22. Participatory fusion: How to galvanise representative democracy with deliberative tools Steven Blockmans
About the Contributors
