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Changing Patterns of Interest Intermediation in the European Union

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Beate Kohler-Koch
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Extract

It is Part of Conventional Wisdom That Organized interests have a considerable impact on European policies and that economic interests in particular have had a greater influence on EC affairs than the European Parliament. Nevertheless, they have attracted relatively little academic attention in comparison with that devoted to parliamentary interest representation. This is even more astonishing if we take account of the leading role given to interest groups by the neo-functionalistic approach, which has dominated integration theory for a long time.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1994 , pp. 166 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1994

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References

1 The annual bibliographies, e.g. in the Jahrbuch der Europäischen Integration (Werner Weidenfeld and Wolfgang Wessels (eds), Jahrbuch der Europáischen Integration, Bonn, Europa Union Veriag, 1981 IT.) give ample evidence of this imbalance.

2 See Haas, Ernst B., The Uniting of Europe, Stanford, Cal., Stanford University Press, 1968;Google Scholar Lindberg, Leon L. and Scheingold, Stuart A., Europe’s Would-be Polity: Patterns of Change in the European Community, Engiewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall, 1970;Google Scholar Caporaso, James A., The Structure and Function of European Integration, Pacific Palisades, Goodyear, 1974.Google Scholar

3 A recent bibliography on organized interests in the European Community contains 475 titles; see Beate Kohler-Koch, Bibliographic at organisierten Inttressen in der EG, Mannheim, Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung, 1993.

4 There are numerous studies on agricultural lobbying in the EC; more than two dozen books have been published and an incalculable number of articles.

5 Haas, Ernst B., The Obsolescence of Regional Integration Theory, Berkeley, Cal., Institute of International Studies, 1975.Google Scholar

6 Putnam, Robert D., ‘Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games’, International Organization, Vol. 42, 1988, pp. 427–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Streeck, W., and Schmitter, P. C., ‘From National Corporatism to Transnational Pluralism: Organized Interests in the Single European Market’, Polities and Society, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1991, pp. 133–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Gäfgen, Gérard, ‘Die Interaktion von Staat und Verbänden in den intemationalen Wirtschaftsbeziehungen’, in Durr, Ernst and Sieber, Hugo (eds), Weltwirtschaft im Wandel, Bern/ Stuttgart, Haupt, 1988, pp. 131–49.Google Scholar

9 As the following analysis will deal with the past, I shall use the expression ‘European Community’ (EC) or just ‘Community’ and only write ‘European Union’ when referring to the Community after November 1993. The analysis is based on my own empirical research and an evaluation of my own findings and the literature on interest groups in the EC. (See Beate Kohler-Koch, Interessen und Integration. Die Rolle organisicrter Interessen im westeuropaischen Integrationsprozeβ, in Kreile, M. (ed.), Die Integration Europas, Opladen, PVS Sender heft, 23, 1992, pp. 81–119.Google Scholar).

10 The institutionalized relationship between national and EC organizations and the divergent patterns of transnational interactions is a long-neglected field of study: see Barbara Burkhardt-Reich and Wolfgang Schumann, Agmnerbandt in dtr EG, Kehl, En gel, 1983; Philip, Alan Butt, Prtssurt Groups in tht Europtm Community, London, University Association for Contemporary Studies, 1985;Google Scholar Beate Kohter-Koch (with R. Brümmer, B. Myrzik and H. W. Platzer), Wirtschaftsverbände als transnationals Akteure: Der Beitrag deutscher Vtrbãnde zum Management von internationalen Inltrdependenzen, Darmstadt, DFG final report, 1988.

11 In spite of heterogeneous product interests, national divergence in organizational structures, and different political affiliations, the agricultural sector is represented by one dominant European interest group: the Committee of Agricultural Organizations in the EEC (COPA).

12 BEUC and EEB, though still small compared to their national equivalents, are in the meantime well-organized and rather influential lobbying organizations.

13 The Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE), the industrial umbrella organization, has been from the very beginning, like COPA and the ETUC, one of the three best organized and staffed EC interest organizations.

14 Sandholtz, Wayne, High-Tech Europe: The Politics of Institutional Cooperation, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1992;Google Scholar Grande, Edgar, Die Forschungs-und Technologiepolitik der Europäischen Gemeinschafi, Cologne, Max-Planck Institute, 1992.Google Scholar

15 Dusan, Sidjanski, and Ural, Ayberk, ‘Bilan des groupes et du processus de decision dans la communaute des six’, Res Publico, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1974, pp. 33–61 Google Scholar; Schwaiger, K. and Kirchner, E., The Role of Interest Groups in the European Community, Aldershot, Gower, 1981.Google Scholar

16 B. Kohler-Koch, ‘Interessen und Integration’, op. cit., p. 17f.

17 B. Kohler-Koch et al., Wirtschafisverbãnde all transnational Akteure, op. cit.

18 This was, for example, the case for a long time for the European chambers of commerce in relation to the German national umbrella organization of the chambers of commerce and industry.

19 Petit, Michel et al., Agricultural Policy Formation in the European Community, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 1987.Google Scholar

20 Andersen, P. P., and Eliassen, K. A., European Journal of Political Research, Vol. 20, 1991, pp. 173–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 Wayne, Sandholtz, and John, Zysman, ‘1992: Recasting the European Bargain’, World Politics, Vol. 42, No. 1, 1989, pp. 95–128 Google Scholar; Tulder, Rob van and Junne, Gerd, European Multinationals in Core Technologies, Chichester, Wiley, 1988.Google Scholar

22 Sharp, Margaret and Shearman, Claire, European Technological Collaboration, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.Google Scholar

23 Greenwood, J., Grote, J. R. and Ronit, C. (eds), Organized Interests in the European Community, London, Sage, 1992;Google Scholar B. Kohler-Koch, ‘Interessen und Integration’, op. cit.; Van Schendelen, M. P. C. M. (ed.), National Public and Private EC Lobbying, Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1992;Google Scholar (eds), Mazey, P. P. and Richardson, J., Public Lobbying in the European Community, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993.Google Scholar

24 Scharpf, F. W., ‘Versuch über Demokratie im verhandelnden Staat’, in Czada, R. and Schmidt, M. G. (eds), Vrrkandlungsdemobatie, Interessenvermittlung, Regierbarkgit, Festschrift fur Gerhard Lehmbruch, Opladen, Westdeutscher Verlag, 1993, pp. 25–50.Google Scholar

25 Schmitter, Philippe C. and Streeck, Wolfgang, ‘The Organization of Business Interests’, Berlin, International Institute of Management Discussion Paper IIM/LMP, 1981, pp. 81–113.Google Scholar

26 Heidenreich, M. and Schmidt, G., ‘Gruppenarbeit im intenuttionalen Vergleich’, in Binkelmann, Peter, Braczyk, Hans–Joachim and Seltz, Rüdiger (eds), Entwicklungen der Grvppenarbeit in Deutschland, Frankfurt, Campus, 1994, pp. 105–46.Google Scholar

27 It is surprising how few publications on European interest intermediation are based on first-hand empirical research. This is particularly true for those studies which aim at a more general evaluation of the organization and representation of interest in EC affairs. Most of them are limited to a single sector or policy issue. The first comprehensive study on the organization and functioning of EC interest groups was published in 1971 by Jean Meynaud and Dusan Sidjanski: Les groupes de pression dans la Communauti Europeenne 1958 – 1968. Structure et action des organisations profcssumetles, Brussels, Editions de ľ Institut de Sociologie, Université Libre; only ten years later a survey study of the ESC followed: Wirtschafts-und Sozialausschuβ der EG (Generalsekretariat) (ed.), Die Europäischm Interesseraerbände und ihre Beziekungen zum Wirtschafts-und Sozialausschufl, Baden-Baden, Nomos, 1980; Konrad Schwaiger and Emil Kirchner, op. cit., is based on this survey; in addition: Jakob A. Buksti and Hans Martens, Interesstorganisatoer i EF, Aarhus, 1984.

28 Lange, P., ‘The Politics of the Social Dimension’ in Sbragia, A. M. (ed.), Europolitics. Institutions and Policymaking in the “New” European Community, Washington DC, Brookings Institution, 1992, pp. 225–56.Google Scholar

29 Majone, G., ‘Regulating Europe: Problems and Prospects’, in Ellwein, T. et al. (eds), Jahrbuch zur Stoats- und Verwaltungswisienschoft, Vol. 3, Baden-Baden, Nomos, 1989, pp. 159–77.Google Scholar