Analyzing varieties of (post-enlargement) Europeanization in CEE advocacy organizations across policy fields

Abstract

This article aims to explain Europeanization processes among advocacy organizations from four post-communist states-Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic-which have been subject to strong Europeanization pressures before and after the European Union accession. The authors aim to identify how Central and Eastern European organized interests have adapted their organizational logics to a changing environment in the post-enlargement phase. Specifically, we address the following questions: How do various levels and dimensions of Europeanization of interest organizations differ across policy fields and countries and what determines this diversity? What are the strongest predictors of the specific forms of Europeanization? Against this background, we test how the specific characteristics of CEE advocacy organizations correlate with the different dimensions of Europeanization-its intensity, ways of occurring, variants, determinants, and outcomes. Keywords Europeanization • Central and Eastern Europe • Advocacy • Organized interestsThis paper has been prepared with the support of a research Grant entitled "The Missing Link -Orgnized Interests in Post-Communist Policy Making" / "Zorganizowane grupy interesów jako »brakujące ogniwo« w kreowaniu polityk w wybranych krajach postkomunistycznych" (OrgIntCEE). Projekt DFG-NCN Narodowe Centrum Nauki, decision nr 2016/23/G/HS5/01001.

New Kids on the Democracy Block: Europeanisation of Interest Groups in Central and Eastern Europe

“…Networking with European organisations is undertaken by many interest groups from CEE. After all, membership in EU umbrella organisations is significant for the representation of CEE interest groups at the EU level (Czarnecki & Riedel, 2021a). Interest groups that are members of EU umbrella organisations are more likely to get access to European policymakers .…”

“…The effects of Europeanisation on the executive (Fink-Hafner, 2005;Zubek, 2008), party systems (Fink-Hafner, 2007bLewis & Mansfeldová, 2007), administration (Ágh, 2013;Fink-Hafner, 2007a), and political parties (Fink-Hafner, 2004;Hafner-Fink et al, 2011;von dem Berge & Poguntke, 2013) have already been addressed. To a large extent, research focused also on the Europeanisation of interest groups (e.g., Czarnecki & Riedel, 2021a, 2021bJankauskaité, 2017).…”

“…Research has demonstrated that interest groups from CEE that receive EU funding have bigger budgets, better access to national and EU decision-makers and are more likely to lobby (Novak & Lajh, 2019). Czarnecki and Riedel (2021a), on the other hand, showed that interest groups from CEE that receive EU funds find the EU more important but are not more likely to contact EU institutions.…”

The Representative Potential of Interest Groups: Internal Voice in Post-Communist and Western European Countries

“…These studies indicate that there are relevant reasons to expect system-level differences related to aspects such as policy access (e.g., Cekik, 2022;Hanegraaff et al, 2020;Rozbicka et al, 2021, pp. 161-180), Europeanisation (e.g., Borragán, 2004;Cekik, 2017;Czarnecki & Riedel, 2021;Fink-Hafner et al, 2015;Obradovic et al, 2008), and relations to political parties (e.g., Císař & Vráblíková, 2019;Czarnecki & Piotrowska, 2021).…”