The impact of the EU accession process and EU funding on the professionalization of national interest groups: the Slovenian case

William A Maloney,Mitja Hafner-Fink,Danica Fink-Hafner

doi:10.1057/s41309-018-0032-6

William A Maloney, Mitja Hafner-Fink + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41309-018-0032-6

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Abstract

This article investigates the extent to which European Union (EU) accession and EU funding contribute to the professionalization of interest groups in Slovenia. Have EU accession and funding had a more profound impact on the professionalization of interest groups in Slovenia than the shift from socialism to capitalism? Our novel empirical evidence is drawn from two surveys of interest groups in Slovenia—the first in 1996 eight years prior to Slovenia’s membership of the EU (in 2004) and the second in 2012 eight years after its accession. Our findings show that EU accession and funding accentuate the professionalization of interest groups. However, these processes are intertwined with the partitocratic role of national political parties and parties mediate the shape and structure of interest group professionalization via their decisions on the allocation of EU funding to groups.

Highlights

The European Commission (EC) has sought to stimulate the active involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs)1 in the European policy-making process perceiving these bodies as central democratic partners
Our findings show that European Union (EU) accession and funding accentuate the professionalization of interest groups
Our analysis showed that there was a larger differentiation in interest group type in terms of professionalization—i.e. the differences in professionalization among interest groups are lower in 2012 than 1996

Summary

Introduction

The European Commission (EC) has sought to stimulate the active involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the European policy-making process perceiving these bodies as central democratic partners. We conducted a linear regression analysis on the 1996 and 2012 data: (a) the level of professionalization (measured with the professionalization index) was included in the regression model as a dependent variable; and (b) the financing of interest groups from EU Funds was included as a main independent variable (predictor). At both points in time the effect of EU finance was controlled for by including other possible factors of professionalization. The data show that even when controlling for other possible effects in the framework of the regression models (1.1 and 2.1) in 1996 and 2012 EU funding emerges as a statistically significant predictor of professionalization (Table 3). there is an

The survey question was

Findings

Conclusions