The past 15 years have seen declining public support for European integration, and widespread suggestions that a legitimacy crisis faces the European Union (EU). Many in the EU have believed that this problem could be effectively tackled by vesting greater powers in the European Parliament (EP), the Union's only directly-elected institution. The central argument of this book is that, while considerable efforts have been made to increase the status of the EP, it is in crucial respects a failure as a representative body. This failure is grounded in the manner in which the parliament is elected. The electoral systems used for EP elections in many EU countries are, we argue, actively obstructive of Europe's voters being represented in the way that they are most likely to respond positively towards. While the behaviour of EP members is shaped strongly by the electoral systems under which they are elected (which vary across the 25 member-states of the EU), the electoral systems currently in place push most of them to behave in ways contrary to what citizens desire. Drawing on public opinion data, surveys of MEPs and considerable qualitative interview evidence, we show that the failure of parliamentary representation in the EU has a strong foundation in electoral institutions.

Overall, this book offers a compelling model of how to analyze the connections between the traits of electoral systems and the behavior of representatives...The authors' stated goals for this book were to contribute to the understanding of the politics of the EU and to the understanding of the politics electoral systems. They have been achieved admirably. * Richard S. Flickinger The Review of Politics *

David Farrell is Jean Monnet Chair in European Politics and Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester. Professor Farrell has published extensively in the field of parties, electoral systems and parliamentary representation (particularly focused on the European Parliament), including most recently, The Australian Electoral System, published in 2006. He is currently updating his best-selling textbook, Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction. Roger Scully is Reader in Political Science and Director of the Jean Monnet Centre for European Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Dr Scully has published extensively on the politics of the European Parliament, and more generally on issues of political representation. He is author of Becoming Europeans? Attitudes, Behaviour and Socialisation in the European Parliament (OUP, 2005).