Bouwen, Pieter --- "Business Interest Representation and Legitimate European Governance" [2006] ELECD 142; in Smismans, Stijn (ed), "Civil Society and Legitimate European Governance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Civil Society and Legitimate European Governance

Editor(s): Smismans, Stijn

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843769460

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: Business Interest Representation and Legitimate European Governance

Author(s): Bouwen, Pieter

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

13. Business interest representation and
legitimate European governance
Pieter Bouwen

INTRODUCTION1

There is agreement in the field of European interest politics that business
interests are much better represented in Brussels than other societal interests
(Mazey and Richardson 1999: 121). The majority of the national and
European interest groups and consultants in Brussels represent producer
interests (Greenwood 1997: 101; Buholzer 1998: 13; Schmitter 2000). This
chapter starts from the observation that whereas there have been numerous
studies contrasting the participation of business interests in European public
policy with the participation of diffuse and/or non-business interests
(Pollack 1997), no research has been undertaken comparing the access of
different forms of business interest representation to the EU institutions.
Indeed, while the unequal participation of business interests as opposed to
consumer groups, environmental groups and human right groups, and so on,
has been extensively analysed, the access of different organisational forms of
business interest representation to the EU policy-making process remains
understudied. Four main organisational forms of business interest
representation can be distinguished: national and European business
associations, individual company action and political consultants (Bouwen
2002: 373).
The aim of this chapter is to analyse the extent to which the participation of
these different organisational forms of business interest representation in EU
decision-making contributes to the legitimacy of EU governance. First, it will
be argued on the basis of a theory of access that the differences in the degree
of access that the organisational forms have, is likely to have ...