Justin Greenwood

Organized Civil Society and Democratic Legitimacy in the European Union

Structural limitations in models of representative democracy have enhanced the space for other mechanisms of legitimacy in the European Union, including participatory models in which organized civil society interests are significant players. To some observers, such actors are likely only to aggravate already problematic input legitimacy. A range of less hostile approaches also prevail, from a neutral standpoint through to those sharing the perspective of EU policy practice where such actors are seen as a complementary mechanism of democratic input. Whilst concerns about the impact of asymmetries of power between different types of organized civil society interests arise as potential issues in any democratic setting, a particularly vigorous neo-pluralist regime, in which EU institutions actively create and develop as well as empower citizen interest groups, effectively mitigates these asymmetries in an EU context, although it can give rise to paradoxical tensions of elitism.

Interest groups in the European community: Newly emerging dynamics and forms

Case studies of EC/interest group relationships can reveal a range of organisational formats and reciprocal influences. Yet in recent literature, there has been a tendency to characterise such relationships as a whole, often involving application of the ‘pluralist’ label. Neither neo‐pluralism nor neo‐corporatism are however system‐level theories, and both by nature defy the drawing of generalisations beyond domains to which these images can be applied. Application of the ‘pluralist’ label appears to originate from a prevailing view of Euro‐interest associations as weak ‘federations of national federations’, often unable to agree and act upon meaningful common positions. Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry suggests that such a blanket generalisation cannot be sustained, not least because of the commonality of regulatory experiences across member states, and prior experience of the industry in transnational political action. These have been reproduced at the EC level to the point of a Euro‐private in...

Inside the EU business associations

Introduction Methodology Governability Factors in EU Business Associations Results and Analysis: Domain Based Associations Business-Wide Associations Conclusions

Business interest groups in tourism governance

Abstract The promotion and regulation of a variety of sectors at both national and transnational levels has been seen as profoundly influenced by the behaviour of interest groups. Yet little is known about what impact interest groups exert upon public policy in the field of tourism. Through case studies drawn from the UK and the EC, the concept of ‘power dependence’ is shown to be the key to understanding the contribution of producer interests in tourism policy. Recent attempts to unite tourism Interests in Britain through ‘one voice forums’ are likely to have limited political Impact because of the variety of sectors which contribute to the crossindustrial area of tourism. However, the formation of interest groups, both in Britain and Europe, dedicated to representing large firm interests in tourism are likely to be more successful than other types of fora, in that they recruit members directly from firms rather than representing more diverse federations of national interests.

The culture of trilogues

ABSTRACT There is surprisingly little knowledge about the informal ‘trilogues’ that play a pivotal role in almost 90 per cent of European Union legislation. This article maps out previously uncharted practices and explores their role in constituting the Parliament and Council as legislators. It proceeds by taking stock of the knowledge that actors in Parliament, the Council and the Commission have acquired and use to make sense of, and act in, trilogues. Our findings qualify the widespread belief that trilogues have drawn Parliament into unfamiliar territory of diplomatic culture, at a cost to political efficacy and democratic functions. Trilogues today are underpinned by norms, standard operating procedures and practices linking formal and informal institutions. They have imparted Parliament with a sharpened consciousness of its role and identity as a ‘normal’ parliament, while leaving the Council frustrated and less confident. Parliament has seen in norms of public accountability a means to develop leverage over the Council.

The effectiveness of EU business associations

Introduction: Issues and Themes PART 1: UNDERSTANDING THE ENVIRONMENT Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Business Associations: a review European State Formation and its Impact on Associational Governance: Will Business Interest Association (BIA) systems become centralized at the EU-level The Role of Associations in Economic Management - A response from a practitioner The Importance of Institutions to Associations: Evidence from the Cross-National Organisation of Business Interests Project Large Firms and the Transformation of EU Business Associations: A Historical Perspective Challenges and Opportunities for Business Associations: Autonomy and Trust The changing environment for trade associations and strategy for adoption PART 2: CHANGE AGENTS AND MANAGING CHANGE The Impact of the CEFIC reforms upon the Associational Sector The Case of EURELECTRIC: The Impact of Deregulation upon EU Business Associations The Impact of Changing Sectoral Definition upon Associability: the Convergence of Business Interests in the Information and Communications Technology Sector in Europe The Impact of Sector Change upon EU Business Associations New Models of Large Firm Collective Action EU-Business Associations: meeting the needs of Europes Service Sectors? Association Management companies as Change Agents PART 3: CROSS SECTORAL AND EMPLOYERS ORGANISATIONS Employer v Product Market Associations: Different Dynamics in Associational Governance? National Members and Their EU Associations How SMEs can influence the Effectiveness of European Business The European Round Table of Industrialists: Still a Unique Player? PART 4: CONCLUSIONS Globalization and the Future of Associational Governance Conclusions

Actors of the Common Interest? The Brussels Offices of the Regions

Abstract The absence of a formal place in representative democracy at EU level casts sub-national authorities more as actors of EU participatory democracy. Where they have specific interests to pursue their Brussels offices act in the same way as ‘lobbyists’, but public authorities are also capable of acting on broader interest sets. This analysis is geared to understanding variation in the extent to which the diversely constituted Brussels offices of the regions can act on a broad spectrum of civil society interests, and thus have potential as actors of European integration in connecting civil society with EU institutions. Differences in the orientation of offices towards either highly defined or broad agendas can be conceived in qualified principal–agent terms, in which the autonomy of offices to develop activities is the critical explanatory factor. This autonomy can be derived more from the structure of principals and from degrees of purpose they have than from asymmetries of power between principals and agents, which in turn can be drawn from typologies of degrees of devolved authority present in different member states. It predicts that territorial offices from member states with medium degrees of devolved authority have the greatest potential to act on a broad range of civil society oriented interests.

The succession of policy termination

Despite the cessation of a variety of governmental organisations, policies and programmes in the UK throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the termination concept which emerged during the late 1970s remains heavily under utilised. This is attributed partly to the effects of the same incremental practices which termination was designed to solve; partly to the difficulties of distinguishing the categories of ‘termination’ from ‘succession’ ; and partly to Kaufmans assertion that organisational survival was a matter of chance, and therefore not fruitful to study. Academic interest in governmental cessations remains firmly rooted in the termination of organisations; much less attention has been paid to the ending of policies and programmes. Management science research can be used to challenge assertions about the lack of pattern in organisational survival, and the way in which political science has operationalised the concept of incerementalist, suggesting the applicability of semi rationalist techniques in an incr...

Social Partnership in the European Union

Can the behaviour of policy actors in EU-level social partnership be explained by reference to self-interest alone? By social partnership (or policy concertation) is meant the co-determination of EU policy by means of agreements struck between EU institutions, European-level employer organisations and trade union confederations. At inter-sectoral level this means the procedure using which the Council may transpose agreements struck between the peak European-level private sector employer confederation UNICE, its public sector equivalent CEEP and the peak European trade union confederation ETUC into the form of EU legislation, which we have called the social partnership procedure for short (Articles 137–9 of the Treaty of Amsterdam). We are especially interested in the extent to which the positions and actions of the organisations involved in the development and use of the social partnership procedure can be explained in terms of self-interest alone. In this concluding chapter we consider and summarise the findings of the chapters on the relevant policy actors, set them in the context of contemporary accounts of European integration, and explore the significance of EU social partnership to accounts of European integration. The chapter ends with a summary of our main conclusions.

Territorial and Functional Interest Representation in EU Governance

Abstract This special issue starts from the assumption that, in contrast to the mainstream view, a convergence can be detected in strategies of interest representation across different actor types of functional and territorial interests, despite differences which remain. The question is posed here as to whether a European model of interest representation in European governance is detectable across categories of actors? It is assumed that the convergence over actor characteristics is due to the main characteristics of the European Union as an interactive and communicative system of multi-level governance which provides a special political opportunity structure to the different actors. The contributions of the issue compare territorial and functional interest representation regarding actor types, national embeddedness, policy field, and resources (financial and human resources, competences, capacity to act, learn and interact) with respect to the emergence of a highly complex European model of interest representation with cross-sectoral, intersectoral, and some intrasectoral, characteristics.