A new public space in contemporary Europe

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The legitimacy of European politics would, according to the model of deliberative democracy, neither arise from pure liberal rights nor the actual participation in meetings, but rather out of the possibility for citizens to participate in deliberations. Deliberations demand the existence of public spaces where citizens can meet freely to enter these deliberations. The Internet appears as a tempting new means to secure, protect or even to further develop democracy, since it could foster new ways of citizens' participation in deliberations. The task of this book is to explore the Internet's potential to serve as a public space for European deliberative democracy. The book analyses and discusses the question, how a European democracy could be possible and what role the Internet could play in that perspective. Although the book does not seek a final conclusion to the questions raised, it finds that the Internet could serve as a new public space for European deliberative democracy in the long run. In the short run, however, the theoretical and empirical problems analysed are inhibiting this potential from being realised.