Influence and interests in the European Union: the new politics of persuasion and advocacy

Book abstract:

The word 'lobbyist' carries with it notions of meetings in the dimly lit corridors of power between those engaged in the influence by special interest groups upon those involved in decision making. This work seeks to bring lobbying into the sunlight and maintains that 'interest representation' is the oxygen in the legislative chain breathed in by both sides of the process.

The work is organised in three parts. The first part expands upon the introduction and provides a historical and theoretical context for the 'new politics' of EU interest representation. Chapters discuss improvements which might be made to conventional studies of interest representation and examine theories of corporatism and pluralism. Part two opens with an assessment of the EU as an interest representative itself and questions its efficacy in that role. Chapter five discusses the role of the European Parliament in EU interest representation and explores influences which might impact upon that role. A chapter on 'frame bridging' opens up part three and the role of social movements and their representative institutions are examined. Links between interest representation and democratic reform of the EU are explored in chapter seven. The 'Europeanisation' of issues and the shift of interest representation from the national arena to become Brussels-based are discussed in chapter eight. The experiences of the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) representative offices are explored in chapter nine. The work closes with a chapter on the accessibility to the representative process available to small companies and features a case study on small satellite retail enterprises and their place in a market dominated by large economic actors, national governments and the European Union.

The work will interest lobbyists, representative officers and interest groups involved in European politics.

Alex Warleigh is Reader in European Governance, and Deputy Director of the Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research at Queen's University, Belfast.

Jenny Fairbrass is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) at the University of East Anglia.