The PADEMIA project aimed to establish a Europe-wide and sustainable network of 56 academics from 31 countries in order to promote research and teaching in reaction to growing European demands to study parliamentary democracy in Europe. PADEMIA sought to enhance discussion among students, junior and senior researchers, also in exchange with stakeholders, on how to deal with the new challenges parliaments and citizens across Europe are facing today.
Members of PADEMIA identified 5 major areas of relevance for research and teaching which account for the complex and multi-facetted character of parliamentary democracy in Europe:
- Changing parliamentary institutions in Europe
- The role of parliamentary actors in Europe, including political parties, committees, individual parliamentarians and parliamentary staff
- The relationship between parliaments and citizens in Europe
- Parliaments and the European public sphere
- Parliamentary democracy and constitutional development
Besides these, 2 cross-cutting disciplinary perspectives on multi-level democracy and the economic and financial crisis ensure conceptual and empirical linkages between the five areas of relevance in its research and teaching activities and respond to the challenges identified above in the subject.
The aims and objectives of the project were:
- Supporting access and active participation of graduate students and PhD candidates
- Assisting the exchange among teachers on good teaching practice within the subject area of parliamentary democracy in Europe
- Communicating research outcomes through: an annual conference in Brussels, specialised workshops and panels in other academic conferences such as EUSA, UACES, ECPR, an online paper series
- Fostering new methodologies and innovative approaches to research in the field by a research award competition,
- Sharing data and facilitating access to sources and resources.
