The volume at hand contains invited papers addressing the normative is- sues of democracy and the European Union. Most papers were fIrst discussed at the conference "Democracy and the European Union", held in Oslo on Au- gust 8-10, 1996, with the support of the Norwegian research programme Ad- vanced Research on the Europeanisation of the Nation-State (ARENA). The editors wish to thank the organisers and participants of the Oslo con- ference. They are grateful to Kristin Johansen and Simen Brrein for managing the conference, to Anna Maria Hauk and Victoria Pogosian for professional assistance with the manuscript, and to Andreas Holm Bakke and Torstein Buggeland for generating the index. Hannover, Germany, and Oslo, Norway, May 1997 Peter Koslowski Andreas F011esdal Contents Preface ...V PETER KOSWWSKI, ANDREAS F0LlESDAL Democracy and the European Union: Challenges ANDREAS F0LlESDAL...1 Part A EU Institutions Chapter 1 Is it Really Possible to Democratize the Euro-Polity? PHILIPPE C. SCHMITTER ...13 Chapter 2 Democracy and Governance in the European Union MARKUS JACHTENFUCHS ...37 Chapter 3 Democratic Legitimacy and the Role of the Commission JANNE:HAALAND MA'ILARY ...*...**. *. *...6 5 CONTENTS Chapter 4 The EU Intergovernmental Conference 1996/97: The Moment of Constitutional Choice for a Democratic Europe? MICHAEL NENTWICH ...81 Chapter 5 Double Asymmetry as Normative Challenge SVERKERGUSTAVSSON ...108 PartB Historical and Comparative Perspectives Chapter 6 Democracy in Multicultural Societies and Multinational Settings RUSSELL L. HANSON ...135 Chapter 7 How to Create Supra-National Institutions Democratically.