The Transformation
of Democratic Institutions in Europe: Is the Cure for the Problems
of Democracy More Democracy?
Russ Dalton of UC Irvine and Bruce Cain of UC Berkeley, Project
Leaders
The impetus for this project comes from the argument made by a variety
of political theorists that democratic nations are shifting their
political norms from representative democracy toward a more participatory
democracy. The proliferation of referenda is just one facet of a
set of growing opportunities for democratic participation in OECD
nations. To investigate this phenomenon, this project assembles
a team of scholars from across three University of California campuses,
and several other specialists on European politics to examine the
tension between the institutions of representative democracy and
the new calls for institutional reform. The project is guided by
the following research questions:
- That are the sources of the pressure for institutional reform?
- To what extent have institutional changes been enacted along several
potential dimensions of reform?
- How have political actors, especially the traditional actors
of representative democracy, responded to these new structures?
- That are the effects of enacted reforms on the workings of the
democratic process?
Research guided by these questions focuses on
the European experience, and includes comparative evidence from
other OECD democracies. This research team has met for a preliminary
planning session at Berkeley in the Fall of 2001 and plans a further
meeting in Belagio, Italy, for the Spring of 2002.
