Katrin Auel is a University Lecturer in Politics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow at Mansfield College, Oxford. She received her PhD from the FernUniversität Hagen where she worked as a senior researcher. Her research interests include legislative studies and democratic theory, especially the democratic legitimacy of systems of multi-level governance such as the European Union.

Arthur Benz is Professor of Political Science at the University of Hagen. He has published extensively on federalism, governance and public policy, and recently in particular on democracy in systems of multi-level governance.