The EU democratic governance in Francisco Lucas Pires’ thought and its enduring topicality

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the idea of democratic governance proposed by Francisco Lucas Pires along three dimensions that look especially significant in his vision of Europe: democratic governance in terms of representative democracy and traditional institutional tools; democratic governance as participatory democracy which complements and supports the role performed by representative institutions; democratic governance as a civilising force on the market with more socially oriented policies. These different though complementary understandings of democratic governance are briefly analysed here in the current EU framework, 20 years after the first publication of this seminal book by Francisco Lucas Pires.