Democratic Governance and Active Citizenship in the European Union

Taken together, the papers in this volume are trying to contribute to a better understanding of the European integration process, by emphasizing peculiarities of the EU¿s governance system, by discussing the factors that promote or hinder civic engagement and the problems of democratic legitimacy. Democracy cannot be built without democrats and only by reinforcing democracy at national levels as well as by improving citizens¿ access to EU decision making processes we can increase the EU¿s democratic legitimacy. How citizens think about the EU and its institutions, how interested they are to use their rights and responsibilities as European citizens are important for infusing institutions with legitimacy and for deepening the European integration process. We hope that this volume will contribute toward a better understanding of what strengthens democracy and, perhaps, it will provide an inspiration towards future research on these issues.