The European Union and the Challenge of Rescaling Representation

This article focuses on the challenges associated with scaling up representative democracy from the European Union’s (EU) member states to the EU level. We argue that the notion of scaling up, understood as copying nation-state representational arrangements to the EU level, provides an inaccurate depiction of what is going on and the main challenges facing the EU and its member states. A more apt depiction of what is going on is rescaling democracy. Representative democracy is not only about elections, parties, and parliaments; it operates within and is shaped by a broader ecology of civil society, public sphere and media, democratic community, rule of law, and constitutionalism. The article starts by outlining what is meant by scaling up, along with the ecology of nation-state democracy. Thereafter, the article outlines how representative democracy is configured in the multilevel EU and shows how that makes the EU a case of rescaling democracy.