Antoine Vauchez is CNRS Research professor at Université Paris 1-Sorbonne. He has published extensively on expertise and politics in contemporary European democracies and the EU, notably Brokering Europe: Euro-lawyers and the Making of a Transnational Polity (2015).

"If you are interested in understanding the reasons and causes of the democratic disenchantment that is undermining the European project, Vauchez's book is a must read. He argues, in a convincing and innovative manner, that the solution is not to be sought in an increase in classic electoral legitimacy, but rather in the democratization of the functioning of the European independent institutions who are the true locus of power in the EU" - Pierre Rosanvallon, Professor, Chair in Modern and Contemporary History of Politics, College de France 'An important new contribution on the perennial debate over Europe's democratic deficit which takes the least likely institutional candidates for addressing it and demonstrates convincingly that the hope for improvement may lie there. Under Vauchez's inspired pen, the so-called independents come alive and become the dramatis personae of the European drama." - Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford, UK "Vauchez makes a strong point that much of the thinking on European democracy rests on wrong premises. This book is a must-read for future studies." - Armin von Bogdandy, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

• 1. Introduction 2. A Potemkin Democracy? 3. The Appeal of Independence and the Making of Europe's Government 4. The Political Crisis of Europe's Independent Branch 5. Democratizing the Union 6. Conclusion