Governance and Civil Society at the eu Level

In their article, the authors deal with the role of civil society as a factor of European democratic governance. Democratic governance is per-ceived as an ‘extended polyarchy ’ that refers both to the electoral di-mension of accountability and to the mechanisms of permanent con-trol over power-holders through institutional balance of power. The au-thors examine specifics of governance and civil society at the eu level, claiming that participatory democracy is unrealistic at the eu level, which holds also for citizens ’ engagement in civil society organized at eu level. They argue that civil society organized at the eu level can con-tribute to higher accountability of the Union’s institutions, but in a spe-cific way, less through enhancing political engagement of citizens and linking them to political institutions but more through mutual control of different societal actors that would foster greater transparency of po-litical process