Why do we need European integration in increasingly fragmented and antagonised European societies? How can European integration relate to the national stories we carry about who we are as a nation and where we belong? What to do with the national stories that tell traumatising tales of past loss and sacrifice, and depict others as villains or foes? Can we still claim that our national states are the most legitimate way of organising European political communities today? Engaging with these big questions of European politics, Nevena Nancheva tells a small story from the periphery of Europe....

Challenged by the notion that the system of government known as 'representative democracy' is more elitist than is commonly assumed, contributors to this book seek new approaches to empirical studies on the relationship between citizens and their chosen representatives. The book focuses on the way in which representatives and citizens interact during mandate periods between elections. It contributes in three ways to previous research on the representative relationship. First, by thinking broadly about between-election phenomena, it integrates research literatures which study representative...