Current Trajectories of Democracy – Diagnosis, Implications, Proposals

There is agreement across the various contributions to the special issue that the state of democratic systems has deteriorated – not only in Europe but also in the United States. Of course, attention must be paid to the different contexts, reasons and the degrees to which democracies are experiences a period of unease. There is also agreement as to the necessity of national democracies ‐ and the EU as a supranational political actor ‐ to re‐think current practices and to allow for a new democratic ethos that gives greater room for contestation.