9 - Contestation potential of interest groups in the EU: emergence, structure, and political alliances

Summary

According to Dahl (1971: 6), two central dimensions characterize democracy: the right to public contestation and the right to participate. Conceptually, these dimensions are independent. Empirically, they are connected. Political competition combined with broad participation, i.e., competition and inclusiveness together, determine the degree to which public contestation is possible (Dahl 1971: 20). With the project of European integration, a political order emerged at the supranational level for which this was – and still is – a critical issue. Discussion about the democratic deficit indicates that the Euro-political system continues to lack some central elements essential for democratic processes.

This topic has received much scholarly attention. There is a vast literature on European elections (van der Eijk and Franklin 1996), the European party system (Hix and Lord 1998; Hix 1996), the working of European institutions (Rometsch and Wessels 1996), political representation (Schmitt and Thomassen 1999), and decision rules (König 1997).

In contrast to research on parties, voluntary associations and interest groups have been researched less, in particular with regard to the democratic question and empirical analyses. Early exceptions are the studies of Kirchner and Schwaiger (Kirchner 1978; Kirchner and Schwaiger 1981); more recent ones are Greenwood, Grote, and Ronit (1992) and the works of Kohler-Koch, but the question of the role of interest groups for contestation is not their topic.

Here I wish to draw attention to this question and in particular to the dimension of inclusiveness of the EU system beyond electoral and formalized participation, i.e., interest intermediation in its broad sense.