Introduction

1 Introduction

In view of the ubiquitous reference to ‘civil society’ in current EU research, it might be helpful to take a step back and bring to mind that the concept of civil society entered the debate on EU governance comparatively late. In 1997, German political theorist Emanuel Richter still argued that civil society is not a point of reference either in EU documents and treaties or in European integration research (Richter 1997 : 37). At that time, the debate on societal participation in EU policy-making was dominated by the perception of citizens granting a ‘permissive consensus’ resulting from the problem-solving capacities of the EU. Societal participation in EU governance was hence analysed from a functional, output-oriented point of view investigating interest groups’ contribution to effective problem-solving and governance ‘for the people’.¹

Things have rapidly changed since then. The debate on the European Union’s legitimacy crisis led to the discovery of civil society by EU institutions. With the waning of the permissive consensus, politicians, bureaucrats, and academics shifted their attention towards the input-oriented dimension of democratic legitimacy, which results from authentic participation and governance ‘by the people’ (see Scharpf 1999 : 1–4). While parliamentarization had long been considered as the most obvious path to enhance the input legitimacy of the EU (see Lord 2007 ; Rittberger 2005 ), politicians, EU bureaucrats, and integration researchers have shifted their attention towards civil society participation in EU governance since the end of the 1990s.²

Participatory democracy via civil society involvement was considered as a promising supplement to representative democracy and entered EU documents such as the White Paper on European Governance (EC 2001 ) and the draft Constitutional Treaty (2004). In this vein, civil society involvement in different policy fields and EU institutions such as the Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) or the Constitutional Convention has been studied. At the same time, students of social movement and public space began to orient their research towards the EU political system as an object of contestation and public control.

Among EU institutions, it was the Commission which particularly focused on civil society and participation as a remedy for the perceived legitimacy crisis.³ This trend culminated in the White Paper on European Governance published by the European Commission in 2001. The document assigned a key function to civil society for the implementation of good governance by openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence (EC 2001 : 10). The White Paper, and particularly its focus on participatory democracy and civil society, was widely perceived and intensely debated in academia. Practical steps the Commission has taken since to implement the principles and suggestions of the White Paper have further inspired the scientific debate of civil society involvement in the EU. An intense discussion on civil society and participatory democracy in EU governance has unfolded in the meantime.

In fact, most political and academic advocates of civil society in EU governance share a normative interest in input-oriented legitimacy and government ‘by the people’. But the current debate does not only draw on input-oriented legitimacy, participatory democracy, and civil society. It has also been fertilized by output-oriented, functional approaches investigating the contribution of societal actors to effective governance and problem-solving which thrived before civil society became a point of reference in EU integration research. Hence, functional approaches, which investigate the participation of citizens’ associations in EU governance in terms of their contribution to effective problem solving, will be presented in Section 2 of this review.

The governance approach has become an important point of reference for research on EU-society relations. It defines governance as “a process and a state whereby public and private actors engage in the intentional regulation of societal relationships and conflicts” (Kohler-Koch and Rittberger 2006 : 28) and thus revaluates non-state actors in political decision-making. The governance approach was developed by policy researchers in the 1980s and its application to the EU political system contributed considerably to the advancement of the concept (Kohler-Koch and Rittberger 2006 ). The participation of citizens and their representatives was accentuated by the conception of ‘participatory governance’ (Section 2.1) which, along with the growing body of literature on interest groups (Section 2.2), inspired the debate on civil society in the EU.

While proponents of participatory governance reflect on how civic participation contributes to effective problem solving, research on interest intermediation and lobbying in the EU has investigated strategies of influence and impact as pursued by different types of societal actors and their mediation by the EU multi-level system. Research on interest groups in the EU has flourished since the mid-1980s and gradually shifted its focus from ‘special interests’ in market related policies, such as business or agriculture, towards lobbying activities of so-called non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in environment, human rights, women’s rights or consumerism. This shift towards ‘diffuse interests’⁴ and NGOs in newly integrated policy fields highlights the interface of interest intermediation research and research on civil society in EU governance (see Section 2.2).

While interest group research tends to explore effective problem-solving, advocates of civil society in EU governance generally share an interest in input-oriented legitimacy and participatory democracy. However, advocates of civil society are motivated by different conceptions of civil society, state-society relations, and their respective functions for democratic governance. Some notions of civil society referred to in EU integration research can be traced back to certain schools of political thought while others rather use the conception in an intuitive and/or prescriptive way (Jensen 2006 : 39). I will briefly introduce a set of general theoretical conceptions of civil society (Section 3) that may help us to categorize the features addressed by proponents of civil society in EU governance.

Approaches which are, more specifically, concerned with civil society and participatory democracy in EU affairs will be discussed in Section 4. In this context, the academic debate of the European Commission’s White Paper on Governance and its focus on civil society and participation will be addressed (Section 4.1), before I seek to categorize research on civil society in European governance according to its underlying model of democracy and the functions assigned to civil society (Section 4.2). The final section of this chapter will discuss the prospectus of a transnational European civil society often considered as a prerequisite of democratic governance at the level of the EU (Section 4.3). The conclusion of this review will summarize the main findings and accomplishments, seek to identify strengths and weaknesses of research approaches (including questions which have not been tackled), and provide an outlook on where we should move.⁵