Environmental groups and the EC: Challenges and opportunities

Mazey, Sonia; Richardson, Jeremy

doi:10.1080/09644019208414048

Cited by 66 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Some studies conclude that in the EU, business actors are both successful at promoting their own agendas and manage to avert policies that might be socially desirable but costly for business, such as environmental or labor regulation (Streeck & Schmitter, 1991;Schnei-der & Baltz, 2003;Dür & De Bièvre, 2007). Others suggest that the EU's institutional structure may offer particularly good opportunities for citizen groups to advance their interests (Mazey & Richardson, 1993;Mazey, 1998;Geddes, 2000). This reproduces a contrast that has been present in the US and comparative literature on business political influence for some time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, several studies have pointed out that the EU's institutional structure allows citizen groups -defined as groups advancing interests that are not directly related to the vocations or professions of their members or supporters (Berry, 1999) -to be particularly effective (Mazey & Richardson, 1993;Mazey, 1998;Geddes, 2000). The EU's multiple tiers of government provide numerous access points that these diffuse interests can use to influence decision-makers.…”

Section: Business Interests Have Been Portrayed As a Major Influence mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interest Group Success in the European Union

Dür

Bernhagen

Marshall

2015

Comparative Political Studies

215

178

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Business lobbying is widespread in the European Union (EU). But because not all lobbying is successful, the question arises: when does business win and when does it lose in the context of legislative policy-making in the EU? We argue that business actors are, overall, less successful than citizen groups in the European policy process. However, they can protect their interests if interest group conflict is low or the role of the European Parliament is restricted. A new dataset on the positions of more than one thousand non-state actors with respect to 70 legislative acts proposed by the European Commission between 2008 and 2010 allows us to evaluate this argument. Empirical support for our expectations is highly robust. Our findings have implications for the literature on legislative decision-making in the EU and for research on non-state actors in international organizations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Business Interests Have Been Portrayed As a Major Influence mentioning

confidence: 99%

Interest Group Success in the European Union

Dür

Bernhagen

Marshall

2015

Comparative Political Studies

215

178

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“…When considering interest groups' inclusion in the EU policy communities, some authors suggest that community formation is an effect of long-standing partnerships between actors working on similar issues (Mazey and Richardson 2007 ;Greenwood 1997 ;Rietig 2014 ). However, others provide evidence that EU interest groups form or participate in short-term, ad hoc coalitions which are more suitable to the supranational, dynamic EU environment and its issue arenas (Pijnenburg 1998 ;Warleigh 2000 ;Rozbicka 2013 ).…”

Section: Policy Streammentioning

confidence: 99%

Interest groups in multiple streams: specifying their involvement in the framework

Rozbicka

Spohr

2015

Policy Sci

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Although interests inhabit a central place in the multiple streams framework (MSF), interest groups have played only a minor role in theoretical and empirical studies until now. In Kingdon's original conception, organized interests are a key variable in the politics stream. Revisiting Kingdon's concept with a particular focus on interest groups and their activities-in different streams and at various levels-in the policy process, we take this argument further. In particular, we argue that specifying groups' roles in other streams adds value to the explanatory power of the framework. To do this, we look at how interest groups affect problems, policies, and politics. The influence of interest groups within the streams is explained by linking the MSF with literature on interest intermediation. We show that depending on the number of conditions and their activity level, interest groups can be involved in all three streams. We illustrate this in case studies reviewing labor market policies in Germany and chemicals regulation at the European level.

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“…In areas where the Commission is less of an "adolescent bureaucracy" including societal actors may have become a standard operating procedure for processing policy issues (Mazey & Richardson, 2005). This effect could also be reinforced by formalising the consultative arrangements.…”

Section: Institutionalisation and Bureaucratic Traditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Societal Inclusion in Expert Venues: Participation of Interest Groups and Business in the European Commission Expert Groups

Gornitzka

Sverdrup

2015

PaG

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The elaborate system of expert groups that the European Commission organises is a key feature of EU everyday governance and also a potential channel of societal involvement in EU policy making. This article examines the patterns of participation in the expert group system of a broad set of societal actors-NGOs, social partners/unions, consumer organisations, and business/enterprise. The analysis is based on a large-N study of Commission expert groups. Taking on an "executive politics" perspective, we identify main patterns of participation and analyse organisational factors that affect the inclusion of societal actors in the expert group system. We find that such actors are strongly involved in this system. Yet, there is a striking heterogeneity in the extent to which the Commission's administrative units include societal groups as experts in the policy process. The logics that underpin the inclusion of business organisations are not identical to the logics of inclusion applied to social partners and NGOs. The Commission as the core supranational executive is thus selectively open for societal involvement in its expert groups system, and this bureaucratic openness is patterned, clustered, and conditioned by structural factors that affect how the Commission as a multi-organisation operates.

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Environmental groups and the EC: Challenges and opportunities

Cited by 66 publications

References 10 publications

Interest Group Success in the European Union

Interest Group Success in the European Union

Interest groups in multiple streams: specifying their involvement in the framework

Societal Inclusion in Expert Venues: Participation of Interest Groups and Business in the European Commission Expert Groups

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