Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 Citizenship Chapter 4 Representation Chapter 5 Decision-Making Chapter 6 Why Bother to Democratize the Euro-polity?
Philippe C. Schmitter is at the Instituto Universitario Europeo.
Schmitter's book is a timely and valuable contribution to European
integration literature. The book is to be recommended not only to
anyone with interest in European integration but also to
comparativists who focus on transitions to democracy.
*Canadian Journal of Political Science*
This book offers a series of ingenious propositions aimed at making
the European Union more democratic. . . . Along with pitching
sensible proposals concerning citizenship, Schmitter offers a
system of representation that would make the European Parliament
less of a conglomeration of national representatives and more of a
forum for creating genuine European parties. He also addresses EU
decisionmaking, arguing for dividing member states into three
clusters and establishing a requirement of concurrent majorities.
Europe-wide referendums, including those on the method of designing
European institutions, are another suggestion. His argument about
the EU's need for democratization is convincing.
*Foreign Affairs*
The greatest asset of this book lies in its ability—with its
coherent set of original proposals—to make the reader reconsider
the ways in which the nature of the Euro-polity is peculiar and
problematic.
*International Affairs*
A refreshingly practical, yet theoretically sophisticated, extended
essay that offers a number of 'modest (and some less modest)'
suggestions for reform of the EU intended cumulatively to effect a
'reinvention' of its citizenship, representation and decision
making structures. This is an exhilarating work, timely and
relevant . . . deserves to be read by anyone concerned with the
fate of the EU.
*Political Theory*
A thought-provoking book that suggests that it may be timely to
begin to improve the quality of Euro-democracy through some modest
reforms in the way citizenship, representation and decision-making
are practised within the institutions of the European Union.
*European Access Plus*
Schmitter offers here a pointed description, as comprehensive as it
is concise, of the daunting agenda of building a future democratic
European polity. Building such a polity involves a gain for all in
the long run, but also a very definite loss for member polities and
their sovereignty in the short run. How can short-run rationality
be stopped from killing long-term objectives? Schmitter's original
and tightly argued set of proposals suggest how this can be
accomplished.
—-Claus Offe, Humboldt University, Berlin
*Claus Offe, Humboldt University, Berlin*
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