The European Institute of Romania (EIR) is happy to announce the publication of the Deliberative Democracy in the EU: Countering Populism with Participation and Debate collective volume. This publication examines the sometimes uneasy relationship between representative democracy, which remains the best available form of government and the one preferred by most EU citizens, and the latter’s degree of confidence and satisfaction with it. By acknowledging that the level of popular content with representative democracy varies significantly from Member State to Member State, the current work provides some concrete solutions to safeguard the European democracy from the growing threat of populism and illiberalism.
Mihai Sebe, Bogdan Mureșan and Eliza Vaș from the European Studies Unit of EIR are among the European researchers who have contributed to this volume. Their chapter focuses on the ways in which the new technologies and the digital revolution can facilitate citizen participation in the EU and, as part of this, in the greater deliberative process. On the other hand, the chapter brings into discussion some of the challenges and drawbacks associated with the new technology for democracy, like the threat of disinformation, both on a national and a European level. The book is available online and can be downloaded from here.
Deliberative Democracy in the EU: Countering Populism with Participation and Debate is part of the ‘Towards a Citizens’ Union’ project co-funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ Programme and coordinated by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). It is the product of collaboration between 20 renowned think tanks from the European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN). This third and final volume follows the first two in the series, Direct Democracy in the EU: The Myth of a Citizens’ Union, and Representative Democracy in the EU: Recovering Legitimacy, both of them available on CEPS’ website. The expert contributors in all three volumes aimed at offering a set of pragmatic ideas meant to strengthen representative democracy at both the national and EU level.