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KATSAITIS A. - Interest Representation in the EU (30h)

Civil society organisations advocating for a wide variety of producer and citizen interests play a highly institutionalised role in the EU political system.

The course will therefore evaluate:

  • why the EU has become inter-dependent with organised civil society interests, and the consequences for different kinds of legitimacy;
  • the extent to which the EU interest representation system is unique, or shares features to be found in other political systems.
  • the ways in which the properties of the EU political system, and the architecture of EU decision making, structures the character of EU interest representation;
  • the instruments through which EU institutions structure their dialogue with outside stakeholders, and their impact on legitimacy;
  • the impact which organised interests have upon policy-making outcomes, and whether one type of interest can routinely dominate in the EU’s multi-governance system;
  • the use made of interest organisations by EU political institutions to achieve their goals;
  • the factors explaining the mobilisation and political behaviour of different interest constituencies, organised interests, and social movements.

Please, find here the ECTS Card for this course and the slides for the course presentation.