CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Kafkova, Tamara |
|---|---|
| Title | Interest groups as important actors for the European Commission: Stronger voice of diffuse interest groups |
| Summary | The European Commission has always been particularly receptive to interest groups and played an important role as a target institution for lobbying. Some interest groups have established strong stable relationships with the Commission and are consulted on a regular basis. For this reason authors like Cowles (2001) and Coen (1997) believe that there are élites among interest groups that are more influential. The élite is made of so-called structured or business interest groups that outweigh the diffuse interest groups like for example environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In recent years, authors like Hix (1999) and Eising (Cini 2003) claim there have been clear attempts by the Commission to create more balanced interest representation in order to increase the legitimacy of the Commission’s decisions and to fight the democratic deficit. The Commission started to sponsor certain groups and created institutional structures for more equal interest participation. The neo-pluralist framework suggests that if some interests do not have equal access to the political process, then institutions could deliberately subsidize and give privileged access to underrepresented interests (Hix 1999, p.190). Some authors see the approach as élite-pluralist, others as neo-pluralist or even corporatist. However, so far there has been a lack of attention to the fact that the Commission’s approach is not static and that it might have been changing. The salient question of this paper is: Has the European Commission shifted its approach to interest groups from élite pluralism to neo-pluralism? To identify whether this policy shift has occurred is important, because if the Commission is using a neo-pluralist approach to interest representation, it means that its decision-making process reflects the views of the wider population. Neo-pluralist policy implies taking into account more interest groups and therefore having a bigger constituency behind the Commission’s decisions. This is especially important because in this way the Commission’s policy proposals and decisions can be more legitimate and therefore such a policy shift can be an effective way to fight the EU democratic deficit. |
| Supervisor | Puetter, Uwe |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/kafkova_tamara.pdf |
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