This evening I met a living legend. The term is much-abused but sometimes it is appropriate. Richard Rose is one of the fathers of political science and, although he is an American, is also one of the fathers of European political science, most notably instrumental in establishing the European Consortium for Political Research back in 1970. He has been an extraordinarily prolific analyst of the political process (take a look at his publications list here). Interestingly, he has started to turn his inquisitive gaze beyond representative democracy and to look at interest group representation in the European Union and so, even more interestingly, he has started to look beyond the European Parliament and national parliaments and to take a particular interest in the European Economic and Social Committee. Yes, that’s right; the Committee. To give a taster, here is the intriguing title of a paper he has just submitted: ‘Explanation is not justification: Representation in the European Union System.’