Be formally in constitutions and institutional designs, either informally in the form of practices or demands, the advance of democracy on the planet in recent decades has, paradoxically, raised much criticism and conceptual and theoretical efforts in order to define the effective 'quality' degrees of contemporary democratic experiences. In this paper we intend to advance the analysis and conceptualization of possible indicators that could be used to characterize or even measure such quality, in the form of both theoretical and empirical contributions. Particular emphasis will be given to the classical themes of representation and political participation. Some suggested topics: theories of representation; institutionalization and political participation; party systems and typologies of parties; forms of political engagement; forms of activism and mobility; representation and accountability; political representation and imagination; information and quality of democracy; participation and political resources.

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