Saturday, March 15, 2014
Governor's (Omni Shoreham)
One of the key questions the study of EU interest representation concerns the diversity of interests that get represented and the type of competition that prevails in specific lobbying processes. This issue has been mostly studied with an eye on functional interests. This paper considers the diversity and density of lobby patterns in five EU level policy processes in which sub-national authorities are closely involved. Based on 15 online consultations that took place in these fields we map the diversity of functional and territorial interests aiming to influence policy outcomes. Our contribution to the study of territorial politics is threefold. First, it allows us to map the level of competition between regional authorities and other organized interests. Second, it enables us to examine variation in the activity patterns of both territorial and functional interests across policy domains. Third, it allows us to examine the interaction between functional interests and regional representations. By coding the geographical origin of all mobilized stakeholders we can examine the complementary or parallel nature of territorial lobbying. The paper has, in addition to its focus on territorial interests in public consultations, broader ramifications. Public consultations have been judged by some to be an effective instrument of involving actors that would otherwise not participate in the policy process. On the other hand other scholars argued that business and older EU member states are overrepresented. It is by systematically scrutinizing consultations that we can investigate the role of regional interests in these processes.
