Democratic Transformations in Europe ─ Challenges and Opportunities

Democracies evolve. Their evolution is not only key to their survival; it is also a reflection of the changing environment in which they operate. This book contributes to the analysis and understanding of how democratic states have transformed over time by examining a number of challenges and opportunities that they face.

With a focus on "Europe 31", understood as the EU28 plus Switzerland, Norway, and Iceland, the book brings together separate strands of literature which often remain disconnected in political science narratives. Looking at citizen-state relations, the restructuring of the politics and institutions of the state, and investigating 'beyond and below' the state, it interrogates issues ranging from the decline of parties, the re-emergence of nationalism as a political force, to liberal challenges to social democracy, terrorist threats, and climate change. The book combines the three dimensions into a comprehensive overview of the state of contemporary democracy, its challenges and opportunities, and its dynamic capacity to adapt. In other words, it deals with the perpetual threats to and transformations of democracy, and the state’s ability to protect and strengthen its democratic component. In essence, it deals with democracies that are in flux.

This text will be of key interest to scholars of European Politics, Comparative Politics and Democracy studies.

Yvette Peters is a Postdoc at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway. Her research focuses on institutions, institutional change, political participation, political representation, as well as the functioning, development and interactions between representative and direct democracy.

Michael Tatham is Professor at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway. He is the Chairman of the Council for European Studies (CES) research network on Territorial Politics and Federalism, Editor of the international journal Regional and Federal Studies, and Editor of the Comparative Territorial Politics book series. Together with Yvette Peters, he is co-Investigator of a work package on intra-EU labour migration and support for welfare states in Europe (funded by the Velferd, arbeidsliv og migrasjon, NRC).