Deliberative Democracy in the EU

Steven Blockmans is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Institutions unit at CEPS and Professor of EU External Relations Law and Governance at the University of Amsterdam Sophia Russack is Researcher in the Institutions Unit at CEPS and PhD candidate at Maastricht University.

This is an exceptionally important and illuminating book, packed with ideas both about what is limited or wrong with contemporary democratic practice in the EU, and on what can be done to revitalize debate, ownership, and legitimacy.

• 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