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Participatory democracy has become a buzzword in current discussions about how to democratize the EU. European institutions associate it with civil society involvement in European governance and claim that it might reduce its so-called democratic deficit. The Treaty of Lisbon formalizes this promise by enacting a new Article 11 TEU specifically dedicated to participatory democracy as a founding principle of the EU legal order. However, two fundamental paradoxes have been overlooked. Whereas participatory democracy was traditionally meant to further the maximum participation of citizens in political life, the EU supports a modern version of the participatory ideal where citizens are represented by a self-designated elite of civil society experts. This book takes a critical stance on that technocratic form of government. At the same time, it examines whether there are realistic ways for a bureaucratic organization like the EU to involve a truly civil society of active citizens in governance. This book claims that European civil society may only flourish if social Europe acts as a counterweight to economic Europe. It analyzes whether the EU has developed a social dimension strong enough to protect civil society from the colonizing forces of European economic integration. (Series: Law and Cosmopolitan Values, Vol. 8) Subject: EU Law]
This book is about both the symbolic and the real struggles for the control of the EU's agenda on participatory democracy in the last fifteen years. The book analyzes how civil society organizations contributed to an agenda which has implications for the regulation of interest groups to the institutions and for the democratic legitimacy of the EU.
This thought-provoking book conceptualizes the importance of civil society and citizenship in building a sustainable and participatory democracy. It considers the ways in which networks and organizations promoting common interests contribute to this mediating space between the public and private spheres, examining the impacts of the diversity of values and attitudes held by these organizations. Taking a normative position, Thomas P. Boje argues for the importance of social justice and civility in an active, liberating, equitable and participatory society. This book concludes with a detailed discussion of the conditions required for a participatory democratic system in which all citizens are involved in the planning, decision-making and implementation of crucial decisions.
This book tackles the issue of civil society's democratic input to EU governance. It looks at how participatory democracy, laid down in the Lisbon Treaty and advocated by the Commission, is put into practice and whether the involvement of civil society lives up to the high expectation of upgrading the Union's democratic legitimacy.
This book is about both the symbolic and the real struggles for the control of the EU's agenda on participatory democracy in the last fifteen years. The book analyzes how civil society organizations contributed to an agenda which has implications for the regulation of interest groups to the institutions and for the democratic legitimacy of the EU.
Can participatory budgeting help make public services really work for the public? Incorporating a range of experiments in ten different countries, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of participatory budgeting in Europe and the effect it has had on democracy, the modernization of local government, social justice, gender mainstreaming and sustainable development. By focussing on the first decade of European participatory budgeting and analysing the results and the challenges affecting the agenda today it provides a critical appraisal of the participatory model. Detailed comparisons of European cases expose similarities and differences between political cultures and offer a strong empirical basis to discuss the theories of deliberative and participatory democracy and reveal contradictory tendencies between political systems, public administrations and democratic practices.
This volume provides a novel and relational sociological approach to the study of EU civil society. It focuses on the interactions and interrelations between civil society actors and the forms of capital that structure the fields and sub-fields of EU civil society, through new and important empirical studies on organized EU civil society.
As the European Union undergoes a major, self-proclaimed democratic exercise the Conference on the Future of Europe and approaches Treaty change, this volume offers a new model of citizen participation to address Europe's long-standing democracy challenge, and respond to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposed are a set of democratic innovations, ranging from citizens assemblies to regulatory gaming to citizens initiatives and lobbying, which are complementary, not antagonistic, to existing representative democracy across the European continent. These innovations are emerging bottom-up across the continent and getting traction at local, national and EU level in a new era powered by technology. This book brings together academics as well as practitioners to give a forward-looking, holistic view of the realities of EU citizen participation across the spectrum of participatory opportunities. They all converge in arguing that, after many years of proven experimentation, the EU must institutionalize supranational, participative and deliberative, democratic channels to complement representative democracy and each other, and ultimately improve the effectiveness of EU citizen participation. While this institutional approach will not magically treat the EU democratic malaise, it should make the system more intelligible, accessible, and ultimately responsive to citizen demand without necessarily undertaking Treaty reform. The attempt to harness citizen participation to help address the current EU crisis needs the type of multi-faceted approach presented in this book. One that recognises the potential of existing and new democratic mechanisms, and also, importantly, the links between different instruments of citizen participation to improve the overall quality of EU's democratic system.
This book evaluates the role that civic engagement, political participation and active citizenship can play in promoting the establishment of a European polity. The chapters included here examine how the practice of active citizenship is managed and constructed in the context of a European drive to increase civic engagement and political participation in three member states (Portugal, Italy and the UK) and one accession country (Turkey). Looking at both processes and policies promoting active citizenship at the European and national levels, this book uncovers current discourses as well as political priorities and values that surround the activities of non- governmental organizations (NGOs). Of particular interest are debates about the nature and level of civic and political participation and engagement of marginal groups (women, youths, migrants and minorities) as they are particularly vulnerable to social exclusion. The book focuses on the interaction between institutions and civil society actors, addressing a number of questions related to their reciprocal role in influencing, shaping, criticising or disregarding certain political priorities. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Civil Society.
Seeking to extend the debate on the diversity of democracy, this book provides the reader with a comprehensive account of how two different global actors, the European Union and the World Social Forum respond to the challenges of globalization with various models of democracy and modes of cooperation at the transnational level. Analysing EU democracy assistance in the EU’s neighbourhood, Fiedlschuster sheds light on the complex relationship between the EU and civil society. Although the EU perceives a vital civil society as crucial for democracy, its mix of a governance approach with deliberative and participatory democracy will unlikely result in a citizen-centred democracy. The book also provides a compelling account of the World Social Forum and its participants interviewed for this work attempt to answer one of the challenges of contemporary globalization: How can civil society pursue democratically global social change? Fiedlschuster skilfully deploys various sociological approaches not only to analyse concepts and practices of democracy by transnational activists but also to throw light on the tensions between democratic idealism and anti-democratic tendencies in the Forum. This book will be of wide interest to students and academics, including those working within political sociology, European Union politics, and globalization.