Steven Blockmans and Sophia Russack (eds.): Representative Democracy in the EU: Recovering Legitimacy.

Abstract

Representative democracy is beset by a crisis of legitimacy across the world,
but in Europe this crisis is compounded by the inadequacy of national
governments to address citizens’ frustrations and to achieve transnational
unity on common issues. How representative are national parliaments in
their decision-making on EU matters? This volume investigates the
relationship between the democratic institutions of the member states and
those of the EU. With a focus on polity rather than policy, it looks at voting
and decision-shaping mechanisms in selected member states, in particular
the ‘Europeanisation’ of representative democracy at national level. It also
assesses the state of parliamentary democracy at the EU level. Expert
analysts share their insights into the changing nature of our political eco-systems and the (dis)connections within and between them.