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.

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. -- Harold James
This volume probes deep into our ‘democratic eco-system’ and the many ways it can be reinvigorated. The contributions assembled in this rich compendium should leave the reader in no doubt that deliberating our way to ‘participatory fusion’ is not a political pipedream but the secret to the EU’s very survival. -- Kalypso Nicolaïdis, professor of international relations, University of Oxford

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.