“…The second Habermas‐inspired approach to civil society considers European NGOs as public spheres – as transmission belts of public discourse and as agents that improve the transparency of public policy processes (Nanz and Steffek, ; Steffek and Nanz, ). Consider the following quote: ‘If organized civil society has the opportunity to participate in international governance, it may act as a “transmission belt” between international organizations and an emerging transnational public sphere.…”
Section: From Functional To Interpretive Approaches To European Civilmentioning
The intent of this article is to make sense of European civil society from the point of view of post‐structural discourse theory. This theory suggests examining meaning‐making processes concerning European civil society by adopting a post‐foundational philosophy and an interpretive approach to studying social phenomena. Post‐foundational philosophy is anti‐essentialist, combines discursive and non‐discursive elements, and adopts a constructionist approach to language that recognizes agency as situated. Discourse theorists conduct empirical research by strictly following these philosophical presumptions. So conceived, discourse theory suggests that the conceptual link between NGOs and European civil society does not have any foundational ground or naturalistic explanation. Such a link is not a pre‐given fact, and can be best understood as linguistically constructed and articulated; that is, the EU institutions, the European Commission in particular, have defined and constituted NGOs as civil society subjects that would stand for and make Europe's imagined civil society present.
“…The second Habermas‐inspired approach to civil society considers European NGOs as public spheres – as transmission belts of public discourse and as agents that improve the transparency of public policy processes (Nanz and Steffek, ; Steffek and Nanz, ). Consider the following quote: ‘If organized civil society has the opportunity to participate in international governance, it may act as a “transmission belt” between international organizations and an emerging transnational public sphere.…”
Section: From Functional To Interpretive Approaches To European Civilmentioning
The intent of this article is to make sense of European civil society from the point of view of post‐structural discourse theory. This theory suggests examining meaning‐making processes concerning European civil society by adopting a post‐foundational philosophy and an interpretive approach to studying social phenomena. Post‐foundational philosophy is anti‐essentialist, combines discursive and non‐discursive elements, and adopts a constructionist approach to language that recognizes agency as situated. Discourse theorists conduct empirical research by strictly following these philosophical presumptions. So conceived, discourse theory suggests that the conceptual link between NGOs and European civil society does not have any foundational ground or naturalistic explanation. Such a link is not a pre‐given fact, and can be best understood as linguistically constructed and articulated; that is, the EU institutions, the European Commission in particular, have defined and constituted NGOs as civil society subjects that would stand for and make Europe's imagined civil society present.
“…model of democracy, in particular, argue that the increasing access of these actors to IOs allows them to hold IOs accountable and enables an increasing amount of affected citizens to become involved or at least represented in global governance (e.g., Steffek et al 2008, Bexell et al 2010, Vabulas 2013). This makes it more likely that IO decisions take account of the preferences of citizens.…”
Section: Conclusion and Proposals For Reformmentioning
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AbstractWe review the literature on the political economy of international organizations (IOs). Considering IOs as products of the preferences of various actors rather than monolithic entities we focus on national politicians, international bureaucrats, interest groups, and voters. By looking into the details of decision-making in IOs the literature shows that a focus on states as the prime actors in IOs overlooks important facets of the empirical reality. Mainly focusing on empirical research, we structure the paper according to the four main actors involved and examine how they influence, use, and shape IOs. We find that IO behavior often reflects the interests of politicians, bureaucrats, and interest groups, while the impact of voters is limited. The final section discusses proposals for reforms addressing this weak representation of voter preferences.JEL-Codes: F530, D720, D730.
“…Out of 32 global and European governance organizations examined in a recent study, only two (the Bank for International Settlements -BIS -and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -NATO) did not have any form of consultation with civil society actors. 19 This does not mean that CSOs typically take part in decision-making within IOs. In the field of development, CSOs are frequently involved in the implementation of projects, but tend to be excluded from decision-making.…”
Contributing to a growing literature on democracy beyond the nation-state, this article draws on aspects of national democratization theory in order to analyse empirical processes of democracy. By combining insights from transition theory and the theory of political opportunity structures, the article examines the case of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). While the ADB for a long time has been described as a closed, unresponsive and unaccountable international organization, a recent evaluation praised the Bank for its good practices concerning transparency, participation and accountability. The article uses the analytical framework to highlight the interaction between hard-liners and soft-liners within the ADB and explores the role of different transnational civil society actors in the processes that seem to have strengthened the democratic credentials of the ADB. While finding significant divisions within the ADB as well as amongst civil society actors targeting the bank, overall the article argues that transnational civil society actors, interacting with soft-liners within the ADB, have contributed to the implementation of reforms, which in turn create political opportunities for further civil society activism. The reform processes, however, are best described as processes of liberalization -rather than democratization.
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