Claudia Wiesner is Professor for Political science at Fulda University of Applied Sciences and adjunct Professor in Political Science at JyväskyläUniversity, Finland. Her main research interests lie in the comparative study of democracy, political culture and political sociology in the EU multilevel system. Wiesner´s second field of research is Public Policy, its evaluation, reform and theory.

• Introduction: Inventing the EU as a democratic polity.- 1. Conceptualising representative democracy in the EU.- 2. Towards a reflexive perspective on political concepts.- 3. Studying Conceptual Change via European integration: A Research Agenda.- 4. Studying conceptual controversies in this book.- 5. Inventing the EU—but as a democratic polity or as a balance of powers?.- 6. Towards the bases of representative democracy—parliament, citizenry, and government.- 7. Who did it, when, and how? Treaty changes, law implementation, and interinstitutonal micropolitics.- 8. A dynamic perspective on the EP´s power gains: studying interinstitutional micropolitics.- 9. Inventing and shaping EU citizens.- 10. A defective supranational democracy? Government, Parliament, Head of State in the EU system.- 11. Parliamentarism and the European Parliament: potentials and limits.- 12. European Council – Government, Parliament, President or intergovernmental assembly?.- 13. Citizenship, Democracy and demos-building in the EU.- 14. Capitalism, Democracy and the European Union.- 15. Citizenship, Social rights and democracy.- 16. Parliaments versus Executives in the financial crisis.- Conclusion: The EU as a democratic polity?.