Representation and Participation in a Multilevel EU

Abstract

The aim of the panel is to approach the subject of democratic representation developing what Pitkin (1957) already referred to in her work: representation as an institutionalized system making effective different forms of political representation. Its various institutions (executives, parliaments) represent the state, the nation, the people or the parties; but she also remarked that tribunals, administration, or public officials can play a representative role, as well as citizens can be represented in their relations with institutions by interest groups in general. Although representation on an elected assembly (parliament) continue to be the main representative institution, current academic analysis (Saward, 2010; Rosanvallon, 2007; Urbinati, 2006) has emphasized the need to envisage the whole representative system to have a more encompassing understanding of political representation in contemporary democracies. As not all this persons, organizations and institutions represent in the same sense, it opens up a space to explore and normatively assess the connections between institutional and social representation (conceiving citizen participation as a form of citizen representation). To think on the system of representation in the EU, then, requires to encompass the ways different representative claims compete at different levels (regional, national, EU) and inside them (executives, parliaments, administrations, citizens organizations). Papers are welcome to expand the traditional focus located on the executives/parliaments election and relations, offering a wider perspective of present institutionalization of representation at the EU level.

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