How limited representativeness weakens throughput legitimacy in the EU: The example of interest groups

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kroeger, Sandra
• 署名单位: University of Exeter
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3298
• DOI: 10.1111/padm.12410
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 770-783
• 关键词: civil-society; DEMOCRACY; governance; access; europeanization; PARTICIPATION; Europe

摘要

Are the interest groups (IGs) that constitute European umbrella organizations capable of cooperating in a way that contributes to the throughput legitimacy of the EU? To answer this question, the representativeness of supranational actors is developed as the central criteria of throughput legitimacy, thereby reconfiguring throughput legitimacy as a two-level concept. Representativeness is operationalized as consisting of regular contacts between the constituent and the umbrella organization as well as the satisfaction of the former with the representation by the latter. The article looks empirically at agricultural, environmental and anti-poverty groups. Whereas there are different degrees of contact depending on the policy area, the satisfaction with the representation by the umbrella is compromised for all three IGs. This is closely linked to lowest common denominator policies which reduce the representativeness of the umbrellas and therefore the throughput legitimacy of the EU, a problem that also exists for other actors of supranational governance.