Democracy Books

Book SynopsisThis book assesses the many changes that have occurred within the European Parliament and in its external relations since the Lisbon treaty (2009) and the last European elections (2014). It is undoubtedly the institution that has evolved the most since the 1950s. Despite the many crises experienced by European integration in the last years, the Parliament is still undergoing important changes in its formal competences, its influence on policy-making, its relations with other EU institutions, its internal organisation and its internal political dynamics. Every contribution deals with the most recent aspects of these evolutions and addresses overlooked topics, providing an overview of the current state of play which challenges the mainstream intergovernmental approach of the EU. This project results from research conducted at the Department of European Political and Governance Studies of the College of Europe. Individual research of several policy analysts of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) have contributed to this endeavour.Table of ContentsList of Figures and TablesAcknowledgments Notes on ContributorsIntroduction: The need for further research on the European ParliamentOlivier CostaPart I The EP and the EU Political System1 Parliamentary oversight: Challenges facing classic scrutiny instruments and the emergence of new forms of ‘steering’ scrutiny Eva-Maria Poptcheva2 The European Parliament and the European Council. A shift in the balance of power? Wolfgang Wessels, Johannes Müller Gomez and Johannes Wolters3 The CJEU and the Parliament’s powers since Lisbon. Judicial support to representative democracy? Sabine Saurugger and Fabien Terpan4 The relationship between the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament: an evolving relationship? François Decoster, Jennifer Rousselle and Vincent DelhommePart II The EP in the EU Policy Making5 Taming Trilogues – The EU’s Law-Making Process in a Comparative Perspective Justin Greenwood and Christilla Roederer-Rynning6 The European Parliament and EU secondary legislation: Improved Scrutiny Practices and Upstream Involvement for Delegated Acts and Implementing Acts Vicky Marissen 7 Out of balance? Practical experience with quasi-legislative Delegated Acts 2009-2017 Michael Kaeding8 The European Parliament’s contribution to the EU Budget: a power game Anne Vitrey and Frederik Mesdag Part III The EP Politics9 The European Parliament and Civil Society Amandine Crespy and Louisa Parks10 Parliamentary questions and representation of territorial interest in the EP Nathalie Brack and Olivier Costa 11 The arduous way towards a uniform electoral system for the European Parliament Rudolf Hrbek 12 Euroscepticism at the EP Elections in 2014: A Reflection of the Different Patterns of Opposition to the EU? Birte Wassenberg13 Migration Policy Debates in the European Parliament. Does the Mainstream Right stand its Ground? Brice Cristoforetti and Lara Querton 14 Possible Future European Union Party Political Systems Martin Westlake Part IV The EP and EU Policies15 Reforming the European Parliament’s Monetary and Economic Dialogues: Creating Accountability Through a Eurozone Oversight Subcommittee Dermot Hodson and Michele Chang16 The European Parliament and the energy poverty: Such a long way to develop a distinctive voice in the Energy Union Frédérique Berrod, Louis Navé and Samuel Verschraegen17 Parliamentary Diplomacy: Democracy support at the European Parliament Beatrix Immenkamp and Naja Bentzen18 The European Parliament in Security and Defence: The Parliamentary Contribution to the European Defence Union Elena Lazarou 19 The European Parliament’s role in monitoring the implementation of EU trade policy Laura Puccio and Roderick Harte

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Book Synopsis"The authors come up with some innovative tools, namely the “Catalogue of transparent lobbying”. They look at and evaluate the impact on both key stakeholders (lobbyists and targets of lobbying), monitoring of lobbying activities and sanctioning for breaches of rules. This tool holds out benchmarking capacity of sound framework for understanding of lobbying in the context of democracy, legitimacy of decision-making and accountability."David Ondráčka, member of global Board of Transparency International, head of Transparency International, Czech Republic"Transparent Lobbying and Democracy provides a comprehensive view into the phenomenon of lobbying... As a well-established scientist specializing in democracy, civil society and the public sphere, I see it as a useful and enriching contribution to the debate on lobbying, its necessary transparency and its role in the democratization process. This book has the potential to reach an international audience of experts and interested lay persons, and both complement and compete with publications on similar issues."Karel B. Müller, University of Economics in Prague, Czech RepublicThis book deals with the current, as yet unsolved, problem of transparency of lobbying. In the current theories and prevalent models that deal with lobbying activities, there is no reflection of the degree of transparency of lobbying, mainly due to the unclear distinction between corruption, lobbying in general, and transparent lobbying. This book provides a perspective on transparency in lobbying in a comprehensive and structured manner. It delivers an interdisciplinary approach to the topic and creates a methodology for assessing the transparency of lobbying, its role in the democratization process and a methodology for evaluating the main consequences of transparency. The new approach is applied to assess lobbying regulations in the countries of Central Eastern Europe and shows a method for how lobbying in other regions of the world may also be assessed.Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Democracy and lobbying3 Transparency in democratic decision making4 Methodology of research on lobbying regulation5 A theoretical model of lobbying6 Past and present practice of lobbying and its regulation7 Transparent lobbying in Central and Eastern European Countries8 Open Government and its impact on the lobbying environment in CEE countries9 Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis book argues that democracies emerging from peaceful protest last longer, achieve higher levels of democratic quality, and are more likely to see at least two peaceful handovers of power than democracies that emerged out of violent resistance or top-down liberalization. Nonviolent resistance is not just an effective means of deposing dictators; it can also help consolidate democracy after the transition from autocratic rule. Drawing on case studies on democratic consolidation in Africa and Latin America, the authors find that nonviolent resistance creates a more inclusive transition process that is more resistant to democratic breakdown in the long term.Table of Contents

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of populism on the European democratic polity. In the last two decades, European democracies have come under strain amid growing populism. By asserting the superiority of the majority over the law, of direct democracy over representation, and claiming the necessity to defend national sovereignty against foreign interferences, the populist conception of democracy is in stark contrast with the longstanding Western notion of liberal democracy. This volume investigates populist attempts to radically change what Bobbio called the “rules of the game” of democracy from an eminently legal perspective. Weaving together normative and empirical analysis, the contributions focus on the institutions that have suffered the most from the rise of populism as well as those that have better resisted the populist tide. Special attention will be paid to the Venice Commission’s opinions and documents, as they represent the best European standards to evaluate the extent to which populism deviates from constitutional democracy requirements. The book also considers the responses of European States to the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed been an accelerator of known and studied trends in most constitutional systems, such as the concentration of powers in the executive hands and the consequential loss of parliament's centrality. Various forms of populism across Europe have thus found an ideal breeding ground to implement their agenda of granting the executive broad regulatory and decision-making powers while loosening parliamentary and judicial checks. Against this backdrop, the book analyses how European democracies should adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic, as this reflection can help respond to populist threats and propose a way forward for liberal democracy.Trade Review“A book that provides a broad overview regarding the relationship between populism and contemporary constitutional democracies. … This idea seems to be a perspective incompatible with the logic governing the democratic rule of law, and it is precisely this incompatibility between ‘We are the people’ populism, constitutional democracy, and the pluralistic view allowed by different constitutional actors - such as of courts, parliaments, and political parties - that finds a deep reflection in the book.” (Enrico Andreoli, Revista General de Derecho Público Comparado, Vol. 31, 2022)Table of ContentsA. Introduction I. Populism and Representative Democracy 1. From Populist Parties to Populist Politics. Populism as a unifying ideology José Tudela Aranda 2. The Critique of Representative Democracy by its New Enemies Nikos Alivizatos 3. Law-Making through Oversight. Parliaments as Accountability Fora Marco Antonio Simonelli 4. The Sirens’ Song: when right-wing populism deals with ‘democracy’. The case of the Rassemblement National François Debras II. Populism and the Judges 1. Populist Constitutionalism in the EU Member States. An Empirical Analysis Fruzsina Gárdos Orosz, Zoltan Szente 2. Judicial reforms. Between political pragmatism and populist strategy Simona Granata Menghini 3. Constitutional courts in an illiberal democracy. Incapacitated but necessary Miroslaw Granat 4. Has the Guardian Died in Battle? Populists, Constitutional Courts and the future of the Constitutional State Giovanni de Ghantuz Cubbe III. Populism and the European Union 1. The effects of populism on the EU legal system Helle Krunke 2. Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. The EU unease about Populism. Cesare Pinelli 3. The Authoritarian Conjuncture in the EU and Liberals’ Crocodile Tears. How Supranational Governance Generates Populism Giovanni Guerra 4. The judicialization of the rule of law in the EU Cristina Saenz Perez IV. Populism, the Pandemic and the Future of Democracy 1. Might Covid Help Strengthening European Democracies? Tania Groppi 2. Preserving Democracy and the Rule of Law in a Pandemic. Some Lessons from the Venice Commission Josep Maria Castellà 3. Misinformation and fear: the difficult balance between effective responses and legal shortcuts. Rafael Rubio Nuñez 4. Democracy and State of Emergency Andres Dueñas Castrillo V. Conclusions

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Book SynopsisNigeria’s democratisation efforts since attaining political independence from Britain have been tumultuous and have spanned over three successive republics. A persistent bug decimating Nigeria’s democracy and repeatedly leading to military coups has been brazen electoral violence perpetrated by the nation’s political elite. Nigeria's 2019 Democratic Experience analyses and explains what went wrong in Nigeria’s experiment with democracy. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and the world’s seventh most populous nation, also contributes 70% of West Africa’s population. She is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest oil producer and has remained Africa’s largest economy by GDP since 2014. The country has hundreds of diverse ethnic nationalities and languages grouped into 36 states (or federating units) and an independent federal capital territory. Though recognized as Africa’s largest democracy, her democratisation process since the 1960s has remained tumultuous with massive electoral violence and political intolerance. This repeatedly compelled the military to intervene in the nation’s political history in the years 1966, 1983 and 1985. It is these developments that provided the motivation for this volume to capture for posterity the conduct of the 2019 General Elections in Nigeria.

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Book SynopsisA narrative chronicle of Israeli democracy that defines historic phases and follows thematic challenges to democracy, including: competition between religion and the rule of law; the statist society and chaotic minoritocracy; modern illiberal populism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The comprehensive portrait exposes endemic flaws of democracy in Israel, but also shows that Israel has considerable capacity – and responsibility – to fulfill the promise of democracy.

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Book SynopsisA narrative chronicle of Israeli democracy that defines historic phases and follows thematic challenges to democracy, including: competition between religion and the rule of law; the statist society and chaotic minoritocracy; modern illiberal populism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The comprehensive portrait exposes endemic flaws of democracy in Israel, but also shows that Israel has considerable capacity – and responsibility – to fulfill the promise of democracy.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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