The EU as a democratic polity has been invented: it is a product of creative and innovative actors and thinkers that conceptualized and by and by helped to realise it, from the beginning up to the present. But the concepts, ideas, and utopias of a democratic Europe differ considerably. The processes of inventing and building a democratic EU are marked by conceptual controversies in both public and academic debates. These are the resource for the present book, which focuses on the concepts, actors and controversies related to inventing the EU as a democratic polity. The chapters study exemplary long-term and detail cases related to inventing and institutionalizing the decisive elements of representative democracy in the EU-a parliament, citizens that vote for it in universal suffrage and governmental bodies that are linked to parliament in much the same way as government is in a parliamentary democracy.

Introduction: Inventing the EU as a democratic polity.- 1. Conceptualising representative democracy in the EU.- 2. Towards a reflexive perspective on political concepts.- 3. Studying Conceptual Change via European integration: A Research Agenda.- 4. Studying conceptual controversies in this book.- 5. Inventing the EU-but as a democratic polity or as a balance of powers?.- 6. Towards the bases of representative democracy-parliament, citizenry, and government.- 7. Who did it, when, and how? Treaty changes, law implementation, and interinstitutonal micropolitics.- 8. A dynamic perspective on the EP¿s power gains: studying interinstitutional micropolitics.- 9. Inventing and shaping EU citizens.- 10. A defective supranational democracy? Government, Parliament, Head of State in the EU system.- 11. Parliamentarism and the European Parliament: potentials and limits.- 12. European Council - Government, Parliament, President or intergovernmental assembly?.- 13. Citizenship, Democracy and demos-building in the EU.- 14. Capitalism, Democracy and the European Union.- 15. Citizenship, Social rights and democracy.- 16. Parliaments versus Executives in the financial crisis.- Conclusion: The EU as a democratic polity?.