Written by a team of leading scholars, The Future of Representative Democracy presents an integrated collection of contributions on the subject of representation, representative democracy and its future. Guided by the last major investigation of the subject by Hanna Fenichel Pitkin, over four decades ago, the volume aspires to be the best of its kind in the field. It is distinctive in several ways. The book is marked by a strong sense of the importance of the past for the present and future of democracy in representative form. It displays an awareness of the pressing need for clarifying key concepts, such as representation, democracy and citizenship. The volume recognises the advantages of breaking down barriers among disciplines, as well as the utility of developing a dialogue among scholars of political theory and political sociology, international relations, electoral studies, comparative political science and media and gender studies. Finally, the contributors to this volume are gripped by a strong sense that representative democracy and its future matters – that it is a subject of pressing scholarly concern and public importance. With a close eye on the unfinished, two-century-old relationship between democracy and representation, the volume moves away from usual treatments of the subject to develop fresh perspectives on the current problems of representative democracy and the possible future development of new forms of democratic representation. The intended scope of readership is wide: undergraduate and post-graduate teachers and students and researchers in various disciplines. Given its interdisciplinary and international flavour, the volume aims to attract readerships throughout the English-speaking world, and to secure translations in a number of languages. Edited by Sonia Alonso, John Keane and Wolfgang Merkel, its other contributors include David Beetham, Klaus von Beyme, Drude Dahlerup, Robyn Eckersley, Michael Saward, Philippe Schmitter, Nadia Urbinati, Gregor Walter-Drop, Bernhard Wessels and Michael Zürn.