Compounded Representation in the EU: No Country for Old Parliaments

This chapter contributes to closing a gap in the literature by addressing civil society organizations (CSO) both at the European Union (EU) level and their degree of Europeanization in the domestic sphere. Normatively, societal involvement is considered essential for the generation of democratic legitimacy. Conventional studies of non-electoral representation have focused on members as the source of a legitimate role for groups, thereby mirroring the criteria of representative democracy. There is a large literature running from de Tocqueville to Truman and Putnam that applauds CSOs for mediating between citizens and the state and its government. And civil society and its organizations are hoped to be able to foster and maintain the mutual trust required for the polity-building project. The ontological position adopted here is that in order for there to be democracy, there needs to be a demos, and that the latter precedes its representation.