This book is first of all an exploratory account of an under-researched aspect of socio-political dynamics on the territory of the former socialist Yugoslavia since the 1980s. It presents a rough analysis of the main characteristics and factors of civil society developments from the point of view of native experts. A common thread that runs throughout the monograph is the connection between the development of a modern civil society and the variations in democratic transition in the various territories of former socialist Yugoslavia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 279422720
The core of the research interest in the present monograph presents the role of organized civil society in decision-making processes of the European Union. We can identify two particular arguments for the inclusion of organized civil society in these processes. First, civil society operates on the principle of voluntary participation. Civil society organizations are organizations, which have arisen due to the initiatives of citizens themselves, are voluntary association of citizens that govern themselves. Therefore, they are a positive force for democratic development and play an important role in the interpretation, setting and discussion of social problems. Secondly, civil society organizations provide the decision makers with relevant information and expert opinions to which decision-makers can not otherwise get, and for which they lack resources. Organised civil society can simultaneously improve the effectiveness of policy-making and ensure the participation of citizens. In this regard, in the monograph we are trying to answer some key questions about the role and activities of organized civil society in the context of EU public policy process: (1) WHO is representing organized civil society in the EU and how it can be defined; (2) WHY is organized civil society engaged in the process of forming and implementing public policies of the EU; (3) HOW organized civil society try to assert their own interests in the process of policy making in the EU?
COBISS.SI-ID: 280997120
Our contribution focuses on a bottom-up view of the inputs of national interest organisations (IOs) into EU-level policymaking. We examine the variations in the transmission of interest representations from the national to the EU level. We pay particular attention to the strategies they adopt in terms of their selection of the level of government and the choice of which institution to lobby (the national executive, national parliament and the executive EU institutions - the European Commission and EU Council, as well as the European Parliament). Our preliminary data analysis (Mitja Hafner-Fink, Meta Novak, Danica Fink Hafner, 2014) reveals that the greatest difference among IOs appears to be between the IOs from the old member states (Germany, the UK and the Netherlands), which exhibit above-average levels of activity, and those from the new EU member states (Sweden, Slovenia) which exhibit below-average levels of activity. We can observe national patterns in the strategies of IOs in the scope of their targeting national and EU-level institutions. The greatest difference in the provision of information to political institutions at both levels of government can be observed when comparing the IOs from the UK with those from Slovenia; the scale of this difference can be characterised as giants against dwarfs. Additionally, we also test (based on the QCA methodology) which are the necessary and the sufficient conditions for interest group' use of the European strategy.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33407325