Interlocutory Coalitions and Policy Convergence

Abstract

This chapter attempts to validate the hypothesis that the supranational coalitions of civil society actors are meaningful tools to promote the democratisation of supranational administrative governance. Two questions will be posed. The first is more topical, in that it speculates on how these coalitions may be considered among the actors who concretely contribute to influencing the interactions between global and European decision-making processes. A second (more abstract) question seeks to determine whether the growing networking among civil society actors at the supranational level is forming a “bridge” between the global and the European administrative systems. This chapter will make a preliminary distinction between the contribution to the shaping of principles of administrative governance at the supranational level given by single civil society actors (and particularly by NGOs) and the coalitions of civil society actors, respectively. It is suggested that the latter are a significant factor in spreading interaction and convergence between European administrative law and global administrative law. Two types of administrative convergence will be analysed. The first is convergence through attraction, whereas the second is described as convergence through imposition. These two forms of convergence are self-completing. Convergence as pursued through the influence of the supranational coalitions of civil society actors on global and European administrative law systems follows from attractiveness and imposition, or combinations thereof.