Ecpr Press Monographs

The European Commission and Social NGOs

By: Corinna Wolff

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Paperback | 1 November 2013

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Involving civil society or those especially affected stakeholders is often seen as a key solution to democratic deficits. Especially high expectations have been attached to the promise of participation in EU new modes of governance, such as the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). However, not only have the results been modest, but it has also been unclear who should participate where in what ways. This book provides a consistent framework to assess participation from the perspective of democratic legitimacy by conceptualising it as functional representation. It reviews recent theories of representation and develops them into a tool to deal with complex governance settings systematically. In a second step, this framework is applied to functional representation at the European Commission in EU social policy. The results indicate that far from being a panacea, functional representation raises fundamental questions about the possibilities for democratic European governance.

Industry Reviews

'Much analysis of new modes of governance and of OMC mixes vague normative expectations with weak empirical analysis. But Corinna Wolff's book is quite distinctive in its research method, theoretical reflections, in-depth analysis and scholarly caution. It makes a major contribution, not just to studies of policy-making innovation in the European Union, or to the complexities of political representation in the EU's multilevel polity, but to our understanding of a critical dimension of European integration today - the legitimacy of its rapidly evolving system of governance.' Professor Martin Rhodes, University of Denver 'This book starts from the assumption that the ideas of those who organise participation determine, to an important extent, what may be expected in terms of democratic legitimacy. Accordingly, the author provides a material-rich analysis of what concept of participation and democratic legitimacy governs EU social policy and how it has shaped the modes of involving the affected. She arrives at a sobering conclusion: There is nothing democratic about functional representation per se - and particularly not in the EU.' Professor Beate Kohler-Koch, University of Mannheim 'Corinna Wolff's book fills an important gap in the literature of normative theories of democracy which have somehow overlooked the growing saliency of functional representation in multi-level composite political systems like the EU. This book is essential reading for scholars interested in representation and participation in new modes of governance, as much as for those who want a better understanding of how contemporary democratic systems work.' Professor Susana Borras, Copenhgen Business School

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