Representation, interests and the legitimacy of European governance

Abstract

Since the beginning of the European integration process the member states have continuously shifted competences towards the European level. The emerging peculiar political system of the European Union has developed as a complex web of governance stretching over multiple levels, and thus disguising and dispersing, political power. This has affected the traditional mode of parliamentary representation hitherto bound to the nation-state by significantly changing the role of national political actors and institutions. Furthermore, the policy-processes at the supranational level have rendered accountability of politicians more difficult and have altered the democratic quality of representative structures giving ever more way to specialized interest representation at the expense of democratic representation of citizens thereby contributing to a 'weak' legitimacy of the European project. So far political representation has hardly called the attention of scholars dealing with European integration. However, in the last years we witness an increasing theoretical debate trying to overcome the deficiencies of older approaches and at the same time adapting political representation to the modern challenges to democracy. The objective of the panel is twofold: (1) Contributing to a contemporary approach towards representation in a multi-level governance system context. (2) Analysing the development of the EU’s representative system with regard to current developments. The following questions should be addressed: How does a complex system of governance affect democratic representation? What kind of representative system has developed at the European level and why? Which modes of governance work to the detriment of democratic representation? Does the Constitution for Europe allow for a more democratic representation of the European citizens?

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