Based on a social constructivist framing, this article seeks to address the gap in the literature on the impact of Europeanisation on the national interest group political culture in general and in the post-communist context in particular. The impacts of Europeanisation on interest group domestic policy behaviour, in terms of national interest groups networking with their European counterparts, their contacts with EU-level decision makers, and their access to EU funds, are tested based on the panel surveys that were conducted in 1996 and 2012 of the most influential interest groups in eleven policy fields in Slovenia. Our key findings are that Europeanisation does support changes in the national interest group political culture in the direction of a more proactive approach in influencing national policy processes. However, Europeanisation explains only a small portion of the variability among the domestic policy behaviour of interest groups.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32724829
This article outlines both the overall structure of the INTEREURO Project (Comparative Research on Interest Group Politics in Europe) and the theoretical foci, research activities and data sets generated by its several modules. We provide this description for two purposes. First, it provides a necessary backdrop for understanding the remaining essays in this special issue. Importantly, we do not believe that the methodological challenges we faced are unique to the INTEREURO Project. Rather, they characterize any large-N research project on interest representation. Thus, we hope that these articles based on the INTEREURO Project are useful to a broad range of scholars. Our second purpose is to describe for the wider community of interest organization scholars the INTEREURO Project and the data generated thereby.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32648541
The development of South East Europe (SEE) is very closely tied to the interests of the European Union (EU) in the region and to the efforts of individual SEE countries to integrate into the EU. Danica Fink-Hafner and Damjan Lajh in 'Europeanization in South East Europe' review the domestic impact of the EU's policy towards the region, also taking its geopolitical interests in SEE into account. The chapter also covers trends in the attitude of the EU towards the region's countries and changing conditions for their acceptance, membership negotiations and subsequent full membership.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31063645
Variations in relationships between interest groups and seven post-communist parliaments (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine) are found to be determined by the constitutional system, the strenght of civil society and institutionalisation of the social partnership, as well as by international organisations. Membership in the European Union has strengthened the national executive in relation to both interest groups and the parliament.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31132253
This article focuses on how domestic and EU-level political factors affect the functional aspect of the national coordination of EU affairs. Due to the idiosyncrasies of the post-communist countries which have joined the EU since 2004, an analysis of dynamic changes in the national systems of coordination needs to focus on three factors: (a) functional pressures from the EU; (b) the consolidation of the national party system; and (c) existing traditions of politico-administrative relations. The international economic and financial crisis is considered as a fourth factor that has affected the first three factors through the increase in the EUʼs ʼinformal intergovernmentalismʼ, which adds to the politicization of EU matters. The Slovenian case points to an increased, though selective, politicization of EU business due to both national- and EU-level factors.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32114781