Functional Representation and Democracy in the EU

Much analysis of new modes of governance and of OMC mixes vague normative expectations with weak empirical analysis. But Corinna Wolff’s book is quite distinctive in its research method, theoretical reflections, in-depth analysis and scholarly caution. It makes a major contribution, not just to studies of policy-making innovation in the European Union, or to the complexities of political representation in the EU’s multilevel polity, but to our understanding of a critical dimension of European integration today ? the legitimacy of its rapidly evolving system of governance. -- Martin Rhodes, University of Denver

This book starts from the assumption that the ideas of those who organise participation determine, to an important extent, what may be expected in terms of democratic legitimacy. Accordingly, the author provides a material-rich analysis of what concept of participation and democratic legitimacy governs EU social policy and how it has shaped the modes of involving the affected. She arrives at a sobering conclusion: There is nothing democratic about functional representation per se ? and particularly not in the EU. -- Beate Kohler-Koch, University of Mannheim

Corinna Wolff’s book fills an important gap in the literature of normative theories of democracy which have somehow overlooked the growing saliency of functional representation in multi-level composite political systems like the EU. This book is essential reading for scholars interested in representation and participation in new modes of governance, as much as for those who want a better understanding of how contemporary democratic systems work. -- Susana Borrás, Copenhagen Business School

Corinna Wolff holds a PhD from the University of Tampere, Finland. With Professor Osmo Apunen she has co-written a book about Finnish foreign and defence policy 1938–1948.