Publisher's Synopsis
This book examines the introduction of the European Citizens' Initiative, which is the first transnational participative instrument ever and is a milestone in the history of democracy. From now on, citizens have the same rights as nation-states and national parliaments to be the political agenda-setters on the supranational level. Contents include: The European Citizens' Initiative Challenge: A Useful and Necessary Exercise for Everybody * ECI Job Done? Challenges Ahead! * The Citizens' Participatory Democracy's "Holistic" Architecture beyond the ECI * A European Citizens' Senate Online * The European Citizens' Initiative: An Instrument Rather of Deliberative Than of Participatory Democracy? * ELIANT: An Initiative for Citizens' Freedom of Choice and Diversity of Lifestyle in Europe * Give the ECI a Chance * ECI Conference, Vienna * A RESCUE Concept for the ECI: Making It a Success Story * Reinventing Ideas and Approaches to Pan-European Direct Democracy * EU in the Vanguard of Democratic Development * European Citizens' Initiative: Green' Statement on the 2011 ECI-Summit * Legal Admissibility * National Challenges to a Transnational Participatory Instrument * ECI and the Member States: The Austrian Perspective * Deliberatively Enhanced European Citizens' Initiative * ECI: Can ECIs Work? Will ECIs Work? Reflections from a CSO Perspective * What Can Citizens Initiate?
