In the long-established democracies of Western Europe, voter turnout is declining, membership enrollment is shrinking in major parties, and those who remain loyal to them have lost their enthusiasm. Peter Mair's new book examines the impact of these changes, which indicate that, after a century of democratic participation, the electorate is abandoning the political arena. Mair examines the worrying parallel development where Europe's political elites are reshaping themselves as a homogeneous professional class, retreating into state institutions that offer relative stability in a world of volatile voters. Meanwhile, non-democratic entities and non-democratic practices are multiplying and gaining credibility – among them the European Union itself, an organization that contributes to the depoliticization of member states and whose infamous "democratic deficit" reflects the deliberate intentions of its founders. Governing the Void offers an authoritative and chilling assessment of the prospects for popular political representation today, not only in the diverse democracies of Europe but throughout the developed world.