In November 2015 Prof. dr. D. Fink Hafner was a guest in the broadcast Pogled v znanost at the third national program of Radio Slovenia, which addressed the problem of democratic deficit in the EU. INternational research project "The organizational development of natinal interest groups in a European coparative perspective" (in collaboration betweeen the Center for Political Science Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubjana and colleagues at the University of Antwerp, Newcastle, Utrecht, Gothenburg and Stuttgart) addresses the question what is democratic deficit in the EU by focusing on explaining how organizational characteristics and natinal factors affect the formation, development and characteristics of stakeholders in Europe and thus to the distortion of interest representation in the European Union.
F.30 Professional assessment of the situation
COBISS.SI-ID: 33904221Material accurately summarizes the steps in the process of implementation of an online survey among national interest groups in Slovenia. It includes all the invitations and reminders that were sent to the respondents invited to participate in the survey. Accurate summary of the steps taken in frame of an online survey in Slovenia will also help researchers in other countries who will conduct similar surveys among national interest groups in later stages of the international project.
F.30 Professional assessment of the situation
COBISS.SI-ID: 33903197On the third stakeholder meeting (2016) members of the project group presented preliminary research findings from the ongoing project (Fink Hafner Hafner Fink, Lajh, Novak Kronegger, Zeleznik). There were 1203 interest groups identified at the national level. A web survey with standardized internationally comparable questionnaire was conducted with the application for web surveys 1CS. It was conducted between October 2015 and February 2016. 36,5% of the organizations completed the questionnaire. Although Slovenia is a small European country, the number of associations and interest groups per capita is one of the largest. In the international comparison there are three features that can be found in Slovenia: its historical experiences with the socialist political system, an important role of civil society in the transition to democracy and the role of economic interest groups (particularly trade unions) in the new political system as relatively strong organizations.
F.30 Professional assessment of the situation
COBISS.SI-ID: 34301277