According to the literature on democracy, interest groups are defined as important channels of societal representation of policy demands and key actors of effective problem-solving and implementation of legislation. Starting from this assumption, the course aims to analyse the role of interest groups’ lobbying activities across institutional branches and policymaking stages, with a focus on EU supranational decision-making process.
Compulsory reading:
Greenwood, J (2017) (4th edtn.) Interest Representation in the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan)
Sandra Kröger (2016), Europeanised or European? Representation by Civil Society Organisations in EU Policy Making, ECPR Press.
Optional readings (texts dissused during the seminars):
Lobbying in Europe (2015) - https://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/publication/lobbying_in_europe
Amandine Crespy (2014), Deliberative Democracy and the Legitimacy of the European Union: A Reappraisal of Conflict.
Åse Gornitzka, and Ulf Sverdrup (2015) Societal Inclusion in Expert Venues: Participation of Interest Groups and Business in the European Commission Expert Groups.
David Coen and Alexander Katsaitis (2013) Chameleon pluralism in the EU: an empirical study of the European Commission interest group density and diversity across policy domains
ADRIANA BUNEA and ROBERT THOMSON (2015) Consultations with Interest Groups and the Empowerment of Executives: Evidence from the European Union
Andreas Dür, Patrick Bernhagen, and David Marshall (2015), Interest Group Success in the European Union: When (and Why) Does Business Lose?
Heike Klüver, Christine Mahoney & Marc Opper (2015) Framing in context: how interest groups employ framing to lobby the European Commission
ROSA SANCHEZ SALGADO (2014) Rebalancing EU Interest Representation? Associative Democracy and EU Funding of Civil Society Organizations
Adriana Bunea (2016) Designing stakeholder consultations: Reinforcing or alleviating bias in the European Union system of governance?
Adam William Chalmers (2013) Regional Authority, Transnational Lobbying and the Allocation of Structural Funds in the European Union
THOMAS PERSSON and KAJSA EDHOLM (2017) Assessing the Effects of European Union Funding of Civil Society Organizations: Money for Nothing?
Acar Kutay (2017) How Does the European Commission Create a European Civil Society with Words? A Discourse Theoretical Inquiry
Learning Objectives
The course will
• introduce students to the different types of interests and features of their collective action.
• allow students to have access to update information about the ways in which interests contribute to the everyday policy making, implementation, and monitoring
• provide a better knowledge of the degree of uniqueness in the EU system of organised civil society
• allow students to demonstrate on the job market theoretical and empirical knowledge and understanding of core concepts and theories in the field of comparative lobbying and interest groups
• allow students to make use of their analytical skills in order to critically assess contemporary politics and policymaking and as such allow them to be able to explain the functions of interest groups and lobbying in national and supranational decision-making processes in a systematic way
Prerequisites
• Good writing and communication skills in English
• Sound knowledge of Eu policy-making and Eu policies
• Sound elements of comparative politics
Teaching Methods
The course consists of lectures and seminars. There will be three lectures per week.
Active students are required two in-class comments on the weakly readings provided by the teacher. This in-class activity will count 50% of the final grade.
Further information
Additional seminars with visiting professors are included in the teaching programme
Students with special needs are kindly required to contact S. Soare for tutorials via skype and additional material (if needed).
Students that cannot attend are kindly required to contact S. Soare in order to schedule a skype meeting for potential clarifications.
Type of Assessment
Students with (more than) 75% attendance
Students who actively participate in classes (75% attendance + 2 in-class comments of articles)
The main class requirement is a maximum 6000 words paper, counting 50% of the grade. The topic of the paper will be the analysis of an aspect related to interest groups activities. Detailed instructions as to writing the will be presented in the introductory lessons. The paper will be due 10 days before the date of the exam in both electronic and printed version. In addition there will be two in-class comments on the weakly readings provided by the teacher. This in-class activity will count 50% of the final grade.
N.b. Each student is required to provide S. Soare with both an electronic and hard copy of the seminar paper. The final seminar paper is due at least 10 days before the date of the exam. Penalties for late submission (applicable to all students): 1 point per working day. Papers handed in more than 5 days late will receive a zero.If you submit an overlong essay, points will be deducted.
Note that this seminar paper is supposed to comply with the basic requirements of a research paper: clear identification of a point of view, a research question or thesis the student seeks to support through the use of both primary and secondary sources. Each paper is expected to provide a critical assessment of the secondary sources (evaluation of the arguments provided, biases, points of contention). It is expected to mention at least 10 scientific sources.
Students with less than 75% attendance:
Students who cannot take part to the course/have an attendance inferior to 75% are evaluated in two steps.
Step 1: A maximum 6000 words paper, counting 50% of the grade. The topic of the paper will be the analysis of an aspect related to interest groups activities. Detailed instructions as to writing the will be presented in the introductory lessons. The paper will be due 10 days before the date of the exam in both electronic and printed version.
N.b. Each student is required to provide S. Soare with both an electronic and hard copy of the seminar paper. The final seminar paper is due at least 10 days before the date of the exam. Penalties for late submission (applicable to all students): 1 point per working day. Papers handed in more than 5 days late will receive a zero.If you submit an overlong essay, points will be deducted.
Note that this seminar paper is supposed to comply with the basic requirements of a research paper: clear identification of a point of view, a research question or thesis the student seeks to support through the use of both primary and secondary sources. Each paper is expected to provide a critical assessment of the secondary sources (evaluation of the arguments provided, biases, points of contention). It is expected to mention at least 10 scientific sources.
Step 2: a written exam based on the compulsory readings.
Requirements of all written assignments
- Assignments are expected to be well-written and concise.
- All material submitted must be the student's own work, written specifically for this course.
-All material submitted has to include:
* A Title Page with a title reflecting your topic
* A header with your name on every page + page numbers
* A clearly identified introduction (the main argument of the paper), a literature review, a short historical overview, the assessment of the research question, conclusions.
* Scientific references based on Chicago Manual of Style + bibliography (at end). Sources drawn from the Internet should include the URL and the date accessed.
* All of the above should be provided in a unique file.
* All of the above should be provided both in electronic and paper version. The name of the file should contain the student's surname
Course program
Main topics:
1. Introduction: concepts, methods.
2. The variety of interests in Europe
3. EU interest representation
4. The Regulation of Lobbying
5. Case studies:
a. Business Interests and the Professions
b. Labour Interests
c. Citizen Interests
d. Territorial Interests
e. Organized Civil Society
6. In-depth study of a successful form of environmental activism
7. Conclusions