Contents: On the politics, concepts and histories of European democratization, Tuija Pulkkinen and José MarÃa Rosales. Part I Concepts: Representative democracy: Rosanvallon on the French experience, Frank R. Ankersmit; Direct democracy, ancient and modern, Mogens Herman Hansen; Neither ancient nor modern: Rousseau's theory of democracy, Gabriella Silvestrini; Representative government or republic? Sieyès on good government, Christine Fauré; Democratic politics and the dynamics of passions, Chantal Mouffe; Disobedient state and faithful citizen? Re-locating politics in the age of globalization, Olivia Guaraldo; The gendered 'subjects' of political representation, Tuija Pulkkinen. Part II Practices: Political rhetoric and the role of ridicule, Quentin Skinner; Political times and the rhetoric of democratization, Kari Palonen; Democratization and the instrumentalization of the past, Irène Herrmann; The rhetoric of intellectual manifestos from the First World War to the war against terrorism, Marcus Llanque; City squats and women's struggle: feminist political action as public performance, Anna Schober; Spectres of totality, Simona Forti. Part III Changes: Women's partial; citizenship: cleavages and conflicts concerning women's citizenship in theory and practice, Claudia Wiesner; Gendering political representation? The debate on gender parity in France, Laure Bereni; Political professionalism and representative democracy: common history, irresolvable linkage and inherent tensions, Jens Borchert; Democratization and professionalization: the disappearance of the polling officer in Germany and the introduction of computer democracy, Hubertus Buchstein; The history of parliamentary democracy in Denmark in comparative perspective, Uffe Jakobsen. Part IV Contexts: A long and hard process of democratization: political representation, elections and democracy in contemporary Spain, Gonzalo Capellán de Miguel; Do political parties matter? Direct democracy and electoral str