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Berliner journal für Soziologie, 2000-06, Vol.10 (2), p.185-202
Ort / Verlag
Berlin: Akademie Verlag
Erscheinungsjahr
2000
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
SpringerLink (Online service)
Beschreibungen/Notizen
EU policies are becoming increasingly important relative to those of national governments and parliaments in the member states. Is there a corresponding Europeanization of the political mobilization by parties, interest groups and social movements? This essay examines this question using both case studies and systematic quantitative data. Regarding mobilization by political parties and, in particular, voting behavior there are no clear signs that European matters have increased in importance. By contrast, EU-related lobbying activities of interest groups have grown considerably, but continue to reflect the imbalance between the well-resourced European umbrella organizations in industry, commerce and agriculture on the one hand, and the less powerful groups and networks of workers, women, environmentalists, consumers, and human and civil rights activists on the other hand. When it comes to protest politics, the data on Europeanization are inconclusive. Data derived from news agency reports, whose quality is hard to assess at present, suggest that in the aggregate the number and proportion of EU-related protests has increased, though not in all EU countries. Both detailed and reliable longitudinal data on all kinds of protest in Germany in the ast few decades and more specific data on environmental protests from 1988 to 1997 do not indicate a trend towards Europeanization. This unexpected result and the nearly complete absence of protest activities in Brussels is explained by four sets of factors in the final section.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]