Europe and civil society

Europe and Civil Society provides an in-depth examination of how public interest groups and social movements seek to influence the European policy-making process. The book is based on a comparison of the role of networks of activists and their allies - broadly defined as Movement Advocacy Coalitions - in influencing decision-making at the European Union level in three specific areas of policy-making: environmentalism, anti-racism and ethno-nationalist regionalism. It draws on systematic documentary analysis and an extensive series of interviews with activists and institutional actors to examine the role of public interest organisations in these three areas. This focus reflects topical societal concerns and facilitates new insights into the study of European policy-making, political sociology, and social movement research. Case studies are used to illustrate the way in which such Movement Advocacy Coalitions interact with a variety of political institutions in Brussels.The book presents a body of original research which sheds light on the exchange of political legitimacy and various flows of information which underlie the relationship between political institutions and organised civil society. It also draws attention to the assumed norms in policy fields and their formation on the basis of ideal interests, pre-existing norms, bureaucratic politics and the priorities of European elites which come together in common policy frames.