Deliberative Democracy in the EU: Countering Populism with Participation and Debate - Softcover

BLOCKMANS, STEVEN; RUSSACK, SOPHIA

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1538145804 ISBN 13: 9781538145807

Publisher: Center for European Policy Studies, 2020

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Authors

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for European Policy Studies
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1538145804
• ISBN 13: 9781538145807
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 395