Abstract

Participatory democracy has found room for development not only in State systems but also, in peculiar altered forms, in the EU system, as a notion that distinguishes «those activities that are carried on by citizens, inasmuch as individuals or as representatives of social formations, for the purpose of influencing the management of public powers without, however, being translated directly into juridical acts that conclude a procedure». It is easily evinced from this definition how participatory democracy is not alternative to institutions of representative democracy and of direct democracy, and the new Treaty of Lisbon also confirms this at the EU level. The examination of the principal institutions of participatory democracy provided for under the EU system will be able to serve as the basis for trying to understand the current "ratio" of the manifestations and, above all, of the positive stance vis-à-vis institutions of participatory democracy in the EU system.