Parliaments and the Challenges to Democracy

Parliaments are at the centre of representative democracies. Their internal rules, composition, the roles, the behaviour of legislators, and the connection between citizens and representatives, are all aspects of the quality of democracy. Lately, an increasing number of authors call attention to democratic decline. The growing success of far-right and populist parties at democratic elections testifies that representative institutions are no longer able to fulfil their mission. Our Section invites Panels and Papers dealing with representative democracy and the role of parliaments in strengthening democratic quality. The Section welcomes studies at the local, national and EU levels. Both theoretical ideas and empirical Papers are welcome with different study designs and methods. Short biographies Michael Koß is a professor of the political system of Germany and the European Union at Leuphana University Lüneburg. He publishes on institutional aspects of political parties and parliaments and currently serves as deputy convenor of the ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments. Olivier Rozenberg is associate professor at Sciences Po in the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics. He publishes on the European activities of parliaments as well as on legislative studies in general.