How can small to medium-sized enterprises (SMIES) be adequately represented in a representative democracy based on a market economy? A reflection of p

The first unanswered theoretical question is whether neoliberal market policies, as applied in the EU, are compatible with effective SME policies. Currently, the literature on economic development assumes perfect information, perfect competition, perfect risk markets, rational agents, and full employment. According to these models, large firms dominating the market do not exist, but, due to rational behaviour, all firms try to accumulate surpluses and grow. Dannreuther and Perren (2013) have identified that such assumptions, called 'invariant behaviour models', underlie EU-SME policy making. However, they do not question whether effective SME policies can be based on such thinking.
The second set of research questions in this project addresses the political implications that follow from above observations, which I will investigate along three dimensions. First, what are the consequences of invariant behaviour assumptions in policy making? Second, how do neoliberal policies affect SME interest representation? Third, how do current conceptions of SMEs affect the idea of a representative democracy?