Europe and civil society. Movement coalitions and European governance

Abstract:

This work presents an in-depth study of how public interest groups and social movements seek to influence the European policy-making process.

The book is organised over six chapters. The first chapter presents a comprehensive background to the coalitions inspired by social movements and the general role of lobbies and social movements in the EU. Chapter two explores the mechanisms used by movement coalitions to exert influence across various levels of governance and presents a format for examination of those mechanisms in the case studies. The following three chapters look at specific lobbies. Chapter three examines environmentalism and the interaction between lobby groups at the Member State level and the Brussels institutions. Chapter four considers the agenda-setting strategies of the anti-racist coalition operating at the EU level, presenting analysis of the different concepts of anti-racism and their implications for the policy process. Chapter five explores ethno-nationalism and identifies the two types of regionalism operating in Brussels. Chapter six draws out the arguments of the earlier chapters, offering some general conclusions about the role of movement advocacy coalitions in Brussels and presenting a model to frame the interaction between MACs and EU institutions.

The work will interest students, researchers, policy-makers and activists engaged in public interest groups and social movements.