ABSTRACT
For more than a decade, national governments, supra-national political organisations and other organised political actors have been concerned about unsatisfactory degrees of acceptance for representative democracy and market capitalism and disappointing levels of political and societal participation, as well as a growing general disenchantment with politics (cf. Schulz et al. 2010a:22). In addition, empirical evidence from social research and alarming warnings from political theorists or social philosophers have given rise to deep worries about the foundations of the polity and society. In sum, this was acknowledged as an appeal to essential political action. All over Europe, the disenchantment of the political classes with the participatory performance of their respective populations led to a range of activities in different fields.
