NEWGOV. The research team on the post-socialist EU member states within NEWGOV-project 24: Accountability/Participation of Civil Society in New Modes of Governance. The Case of the New EU member states

Funded by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme, 09/2004 - 08/2008, Contact: Heiko Pleines
 

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The research team

This project is part of the NEWGOV Integrated Project, led by the European University Institute, Florence (NEWGOV. New Modes of Governance, Project no. CIT1-CT-2004-506392, Integrated Project, Priority 7 - Citizens and Governance in the Knowledge-based Society, Funded by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme, http://www.eu-newgov.org).

 Within NEWGOV the research team is part of project 24, which is headed by Daniela Obradovic (University of Amsterdam). The project 24 research team on the post-socialist EU member states consists of: Research Centre for East European Studies, Bremen (Heiko Pleines et.al., team leader - NEWGOV project partner No. 38), Institute of Sociology, Prague (Zdenka Mansfeldova, NEWGOV project partner No. 34), Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Warsaw (Michal Federowicz, NEWGOV project partner No. 35), University of Cambridge (David Lane, NEWGOV project partner No. 37).

The analytical framework

  "The aim of this Integrated Project is to examine the transformation of governance in and beyond Europe by mapping, evaluating and analysing the emergence, execution, and evolution of what we refer to as "New Modes of Governance". By new modes of governance we mean the range of innovation and transformation that has been and continues to occur in the instruments, methods, modes and systems of governance in contemporary polities and economies, and especially within the European Union (EU) and its member states (both current and prospective). 

 New modes of governance cover a wide range of different policy processes such as the open method of co-ordination, voluntary accords, standard setting, regulatory networks, regulatory agencies, regulation "through information", bench-marking, peer review, mimicking, policy competition, and informal agreements, as well as new modes of governance and forms of policy experimentation in different economic sectors, where a new mix of public and private goods is sought. Policy areas in which the new modes of governance are applied include, for example, macro-economic management, economic reform and innovation, research and development, employment, social inclusion, public service provision, and sustainable development; migration, criminal prosecution, utility and service regulation, taxation, training and education and others. But we do not restrict our analytical attention solely to the creation of new or novel instruments of governance. Indeed, it would not make sense to do so, given that innovation is rarely path-breaking and usually occurs in the context of institutional inertia and complexity, demanding the "old" is examined along with the "new". Moreover, the most fascinating puzzles are to be found at the boundaries of governing modes, both old and new, where they overlapping, merge into one another and develop hybrid forms." (NEWGOV. New modes of governance. Scientific objectives and project overview, p.5, http://www.eu-newgov.org/database/PUBLIC/P11000-01-DESC01_NEWGOV_Project_Overview.PDF)

 The integration of eight post-socialist countries into the EU as part of the 2004 enlargement is one of the issues which receive special attention within the integrated project, as "the question of the viability of the new modes of governance is of a particular importance for the transformation of the societies, legal systems and cultures, economies and polities of the new member states where governance issues arise in a different way and have to meet the double challenge of Europeanisation and transition." (NEWGOV. New modes of governance. Scientific objectives and project overview, p.5, http://www.eu-newgov.org/database/PUBLIC/P11000-01-DESC01_NEWGOV_Project_Overview.PDF)

Research question

In this context the research team examines the participation of civil society organisations from the new EU member states with a socialist past in (old and new forms of) governance, whereby civil society is defined in a broad way including actually all collective non-state actors participating together with state (including EU) actors in different modes of governance. Thus the focus is not only on NGOs in the narrow sense but on trade unions and business associations as well.

 The research question relates to the aspect of evaluation – impact on structures (E3-#2) as laid out in the scientific objectives of the NEWGOV Project: "Given the important role of private actors in the new modes of governance, the question arises of how they can be held accountable for the consequences of their activities? How can the lack of democratic legitimation, linked to the use of new modes of governance involving non-elected private actors, be compensated for? Which different modes of governance, such as parliamentary control, transparency requirements, elements of negotiated democracy, judicial processes?"

In line with the general aim of project 24 the research team focuses on questions of accountability. We distinguish between different forms and different directions of accountability. Three forms of accountability are of relevance here. Political accountability concerns responsibility for political decisions and refers to participants in the political decision-making process, whereas administrative accountability concerns responsibility for bureacratic implementation and refers to participants in the implementation process of political decisions. Political as well as administrative accountability is focused on contents of policy measures and quality of implementation. Legal accountability, on the contrary, relates to the forms of participation in policy making and implementation. It concerns responsibility for the legality of the means employed to influence decisions and refers to all participants in political decision-making and implementation.

Accountability, as covered by the research team, can have three directions: First, civil society organisations can hold state (including EU) actors accountable. Here political and administrative accountability are most relevant, i.e. civil society organisations check the contents of policy measures and the quality of implementation (much more then the rules of decision-making). Second, state (including EU) actors can also hold civil society organisations accountable. However, here the focus is not on contents of policy recommendations but on the ways used to promote them, i.e. the focus is on legal accountability. Third, members of civil society organisations can hold their leadership accountable. Here all three forms of accountability can be of relevance.

Accountability concerns the local, regional, national and the EU level. As especially on the side of civil society the same actors are present at all (or most) of the levels, questions of accountability can be addressed in a multilevel perspective.
  Whereas the general focus of project 24 is on new modes of governance at the EU level, the research team - in a first step - concentrates its analyses of the new EU member states on the national level. This has a number of reasons. First, civil society organisations started to participate in EU governance only in 2004, when their countries joined the EU. Therefore, actual experience with their participation is still limited. Second, when they participate in EU governance they do this most often within supranational associations (like e.g. the European Trade Union Confederation or the Union of Industrial and Employers - Confederations of Europe). As a result their individual impact is hard to determine. Third, questions of legal accountability of civil society organisations are first of all regulated at the national level.

As a result the involvement of civil society organisations at the EU level can only be analysed after their nature and capacity and the legal regulation of their activities have been examined at the national level.

Accountability of civil society organisations implies that they have an impact on political decisions and their implementation, as otherwise it would not make sense to assign any responsibility to them. Accordingly, an assessment of their accountability also has to take into consideration their influence within (again old and new modes of) governance. The research team will accordingly also analyse the capacities and (political) impact of civil society organisations from the new EU member states at the EU level.


Project publications

Heiko Pleines: Is this the way to Brussels? CEE civil society involvement in EU governance, in: Acta Politica 1-2/2010 (vol. 45), pp.229-246

Heiko Pleines, Kristyna Buskova: Czech environmental NGOs. Actors or agents in EU multilevel governance?, in: Contemporary European Studies 1/2007 (vol. 2), pp.37-50

Daniela Obradovic, Heiko Pleines (eds): The capacity of Central and East European interest groups to participate in EU governance, Stuttgart (Ibidem Publishers) 2007

Heiko Pleines (ed.): Participation of Civil Society in New Modes of Governance. The Case of the New EU Member States. Part 3: Involvement at the EU level, Working Papers of the Research Centre for East European Studies (Arbeitspapiere und Materialien der Forschungsstelle Osteuropa), No. 76 (September 2006)

Heiko Pleines (ed.): Participation of Civil Society in New Modes of Governance. The Case of the New EU Member States. Part 2: Questions of Accountability, Working Papers of the Research Centre for East European Studies (Arbeitspapiere und Materialien der Forschungsstelle Osteuropa) No. 74 (February 2006)

Heiko Pleines (ed.): Participation of Civil Society in New Modes of Governance. The Case of the New EU Member States. Part 1: The State of Civil Society, Working Papers of the Research Centre for East European Studies (Arbeitspapiere und Materialien der Forschungsstelle Osteuropa) No. 67 (May 2005)