The EU as a democratic polity has been invented: it is a product of creative and innovative actors and thinkers that conceptualized and by and by helped to realise it, from the beginning up to the present. But the concepts, ideas, and utopias of a democratic Europe differ considerably. The processes of inventing and building a democratic EU are marked by conceptual controversies in both public and academic debates. These are the resource for the present book, which focuses on the concepts, actors and controversies related to inventing the EU as a democratic polity. The chapters study exemplary long-term and detail cases related to inventing and institutionalizing the decisive elements of representative democracy in the EU-a parliament, citizens that vote for it in universal suffrage and governmental bodies that are linked to parliament in much the same way as government is in a parliamentary democracy. Claudia Wiesner is Professor for Political science at Fulda University of Applied Sciences and adjunct Professor in Political Science at Jyväskylä University, 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.

Autorentext
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.

Inhalt
Preface
Introduction: Inventing the EU as a democratic polity
Part I: The theoretical and methodological toolkit1.Conceptualising representative democracy in the EU2.Towards a reflexive perspective on political concepts3.Studying Conceptual Change via European integration: A Research Agenda4.Studying conceptual controversies in this book
Part II: Inventing the EU as a democratic polity5.Inventing the EUbut as a democratic polity or as a balance of powers?6.Towards the bases of representative democracyparliament, citizenry, and government7.Who did it, when, and how? Treaty changes, law implementation, and interinstitutonal micropolitics8.A dynamic perspective on the EP´s power gains: studying interinstitutional micropolitics 9.Inventing and shaping EU citizensPart III: The EU as a supranational democratic polity?10.A defective supranational democracy? Government, Parliament, Head of State in the EU system11.Parliamentarism and the European Parliament: potentials and limits12.European Council Government, Parliament, President or intergovernmental assembly? 13.Citizenship, Democracy and demos-building in the EU
Part IV: The inner market, multi-level governance and democracy14.Capitalism, Democracy and the European Union15.Citizenship, Social rights and democracy16.Parliaments versus Executives in the financial crisis
Conclusion: The EU as a democratic polity?