There is hardly a term in political and social sciences that is used as frequently as the term crisis. Crisis of the welfare state, crisis of political parties, crisis of parliament, euro crisis, crisis in the Middle East, crisis of dictatorships, and always: crisis of democracy. Is democracy really in crisis, or is this widespread judgment a fabrication of theorists and the media? The contributions in this book examine the current state of established democracies based on a shared understanding of democracy and crisis. The reader is offered an empirically rich perspective on the central levels of democracy in the OECD world from three theoretical viewpoints: participation, representation, and governance. The phenomena of crisis are multifaceted and vary from institution to institution, from policy area to policy area.