What is a legitimate role for Euro-citizens?

Article abstract:

This article presents a way of thinking about the legitimate role of citizens in European governance. It discusses factors that may enable or constrain political participation. The starting point is that the role of Euro-citizens depends on how the Union's future political order is envisioned. The more the Union is moving away from a special purpose organisation with limited tasks, responsibilities and powers, and transforming itself into a full-blown polity, the more important it becomes to analyse the democratic quality of its political organisation and system of governance.

In a large-scale and multi-level polity such as the EU, individual citizens cannot rely solely on their own direct participation. They have to trust institutions, intermediary organisations and agents that routinely, and with integrity, take care of their concerns, without continuous citizen' participation. Democracies require institutions that make participation effective as well as institutions that make direct participation redundant. One implication is that we need to understand better how different institutions of governance ¾ hierarchical, specialised and open structures ¾ mediate demands for political participation, actual participation and outcomes.