Methodologies and Research Design in the Social Sciences

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A Political Sociology of European Democracy
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A Political Sociology of European Democracy
Week 4 Lecture 2 Lecturer Paul Blokker
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Introduction

• The Democratic Deficit Formal and Informal
  Aspects
• Input democracy and output democracy
• Civil society involvement in the EU

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Introduction

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Introduction
Announcement Examination - The student will be
evaluated at the end of the course by means of a
written essay, to be handed in at the end
(deadline 30 May, to be handed in by e-mail, by
1700 pm) - The written essay will be of a
minimum of 3.000 words, and needs to contain a
bibliography with at least 10 academic resources.

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Introduction

• Announcement Examination
• The essay needs to address a theme related to
  democracy in or of Europe.
• The essay needs to be set up in a clearly
  structured way, with a clear introduction with an
  outline of the paper, a convincing argument in
  the middle part, and succinct conclusions
  (including own opinion).

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Introduction

• Announcement Workshop
• In the first week of June, we will hold a
  half-day workshop on Postnational Democracy.
• Invited speakers are
• - prof. Jiri Priban, Cardiff University prof.
  William Outhwaite, Newcastle University.
• The workshop will substitute for normal class
  hours. Probable date is Tuesday 5 June.

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Introduction

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The increased emergence of a Political Europe has
  made a democratic deficit more visible
• Output democracy seems insufficient to stem the
  critique on a democratic deficit
• Input democracy if understood as representative
  politics through parliaments suffers from the
  declining standing of parliaments and party
  politics, and a lack of direct civic engagement.

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Introduction

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• Before the late 1990s, the European project was
  legitimated by a permissive consensus, that is,
  citizens given the political elites a mandate for
  issues of problem-solving
• Most researchers therefore analysed societal
  participation in EU governance from a
  functional, output-oriented point of view
  investigating interest groups contribution to
  effective problem-solving and governance for the
  people (Finke 2007 4)

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Introduction

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The increasingly perceived democratic deficit
  has led to a shift of attention towards
  input-oriented views, based on the idea of
  authentic participation and governance by the
  people
• On this view, the parliamentarization of the EU
  would not be sufficient for a democratization of
  European structures

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• Civil society involvement is now understood as a
  significant way to counter the democratic
  deficit
• Civil society involvement is indeed the professed
  purpose of strategies of good governance and
  deliberative method.

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• One definition of civil society is
• Civil society refers to the realm of
  interaction, institutions, and social cohesion
  that sustains public life outside the spheres of
  the state and economy (Encyclopedia of Social
  Theory)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• There is, however, no consensus on the exact
  meaning of civil society
• 1. An oppositional perspective that identifies
  civil society with autonomous and distinct
  spheres of state and civil society, locating
  civil society opposite to the state (Locke)
• 2. An integrative approach emphasizes the
  associative relation between society and the
  state. Involvement of civil society has a
  legitimizing and controlling function
  (Montesquieu, Hegel).

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• Civil society generally involves
• - a tripartite framework of civil society, the
  state, and the economy
• - individual rights as a protection of
  citizenship (private and public autonomy)
• - social solidarity
• - social plurality
• - the public sphere and political participation.
  (Cohen Arato 1988)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• On the European level, the virtue of civil
  society is supposed to lie in
• its potential to connect a diversity of
  interests and groups to European policy-making
• the enhancement of political participation by
  non-political actors

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• Since the mid-1990s, EU-society relations are
  increasingly discussed
• The ECs White Paper on Governance explicitly
  promoted improvements of European governance
• The European Convention included civil society
  representation in the deliberative process

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• Today, political leaders throughout Europe are
  facing a real paradox. On the one hand, Europeans
  want them to find solutions to the major problems
  confronting our societies. On the other hand,
  people increasingly distrust institutions and
  politics or are simply not interested in them.
• (White Paper on Governance, 2001)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The problem is acknowledged by national
  parliaments and governments alike. It is
  particularly acute at the level of the European
  Union. Many people are losing confidence in a
  poorly understood and complex system to deliver
  the policies that they want. The Union is often
  seen as remote and at the same time too
  intrusive.
• (White Paper on Governance, 2001)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The White Paper proposes opening up the
  policy-making process to get more people and
  organisations involved in shaping and delivering
  EU policy. It promotes greater openness,
  accountability and responsibility for all those
  involved. This should help people to see how
  Member States, by acting together within the
  Union, are able to tackle their concerns more
  effectively.
• (White Paper on Governance, 2001)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• - The White Paper emphasized strongly the role
  of civil society in the implementation of good
  governance, that was to function by openness,
  participation, accountability, effectiveness and
  coherence
• - The White Paper, and particularly its focus on
  participatory democracy and civil society, has
  since been widely perceived and intensely debated
  in a scientific debate of civil society
  involvement in the EU.

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• Two approaches in scholarly debates to civil
  society involvement
• Output-oriented approaches focus on governance
  and problem-solving
• Input-oriented approaches focus on civic
  participation and voice.

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The output-oriented governance approach sees
  governance as a process and state whereby public
  and private actors engage in international
  regulation of societal relationships and
  conflicts (Kohler-Koch and Rittberger 2006).
• - The emphasis is on the inclusion of non-state
  actors in policy-making
• - The objectives are to contribute to more
  effective policy-making.

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• Output-oriented governance approach
• - The emphasis is on participatory governance
• - Groups or stakeholders to be included are
  business, social partners, welfare organizations,
  consumer, women, and environmental groups.
• - The rationale lies in intelligent democracy
  enhancement of information on the willingness to
  comply, consideration of citizens motives.

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• 2. Input-oriented governance approach
• - An emphasis on civic participation and
  authentic governance by the people as a good
  in its own right
• - An emphasis on issues of popular legitimacy
  and popular representation.

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• (Kohler Koch 2010)
• The main emphasis in European governance is,
  however, on output-oriented participation of
  different groups and stakeholders
• Less attention is paid to representation
• Whom are the participating groups/collective
  actors actually representing?

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The discourse of the European Commission is
  oscillating between input- and output-oriented
  conceptions of civil society
• The White Paper seems to explicitly try to
  resolve issues of effective policy-making and
  problem-solving
• The Commission has increasingly sought to include
  groups for this purpose (common market,
  migration, social policy)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The issue of representation of societal actors is
  less at stake. After all, European politics
  disposes already of various forms of
  representation
• member states in the Council,
• the electorate in the EP,
• functional interests in the European Economic and
  Social Committee,
• subnational interests in the Committee of Regions
  (Kohler-Koch 2010 102).

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The governance approach promoted by the
  Commission was attractive for two reasons
• A commitment to the improvement of governance
  would enhance the legitimacy of the European
  Commission
• Governance and civil society were fashionable
  concepts (governance addressing malfunctioning
  governance, civil society addressing
  malfunctioning democracy).

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The White Paper on Governance
• - Deep skepticism towards the problem-solving
  capacity of expert-based policy-making call for
  more open government
• - Growing dissatisfaction with parliamentary
  democracy call for direct participation of
  stakeholders

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The White Paper on Governance (2001)
• - Stakeholders were to include target
  groups, civil society actors, experts
• - a new mode of governance was to guarantee
  wider involvement, redress inequalities, increase
  collective learning, and enhance vertical and
  horizontal articulation in the policy process
  (Kohler-Koch 2010 103)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The White Paper on Governance (2001)
• - The White Paper put stakeholders at the
  forefront, and endorsed a
• reasoned discourse between experts and lay
  people to support the effectiveness and
  legitimacy of policy-making and a wider public
  debate on European issues to erase the deficit
  of mutual awareness between civil society and
  public authorities (Kohler Koch 2010 103)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• Kohler Koch argues there are however durable
  tensions in the governance approach in particular
  with democratic representation
• This comes through in particular with regard to
  two dimensions, that is, the division of power,
  and direct deliberative polyarchy (DDP)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• - Two dimensions show that popular representation
  is not of importance
• Division of powers The Commission is not a
  representative institution, and its consultation
  of stakeholders is merely in the area of
  initiating and executing policy, not legislation
• Directly deliberative polyarchy (DDP) a system
  of direct involvement of stakeholders, in which
  emphasis is on experimentation, but no attention
  is paid to power differences, irreconcilable
  interests, the safeguarding of citizens
  democratic rights.

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• The representativeness of the stakeholders
  involved is then largely unclear
• Two criteria seem important
• Descriptive (e.g., from different member states)
• Substantive (the representation of distinct
  interests, groups, minorities, etc.)

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society

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Civil Society

• European Democracy and Civil Society
• - According to Kohler-Koch in the Commissions
  approach, key problems remain unresolved
• - participation
• - problems of collective action
• - absence of clear benchmarks for
  representativity and selectivity in the
  interaction between EU institutions and
  interest groups.

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