The three worlds of European civil society—What role for civil society for what kind of Europe?

Figures & data

Table 1 Conceptual frames linking the EU and civil society.

Conception	EU a regulatory political system with civil society involvement	EU a system of participatory governance	EU an emergent polity with a social constituency in the making
Image of the EU	A multi-level political system with responsible institutions	A multi-level, multi-tier system of governance operating on public–private partnership	An emergent polity in its own right, embracing a political community
Perceived (potential) legitimacy crisis	Declining permissive consensus in face of more intrusive effects of EU policies; higher demand on legitimacy due to the more political character of the EU	Inherent problems of governance and compliance in view of risk society, multi-level complexity; heterogeneity of context conditions and diversity of interests	No successful constitutionalisation of EU polity without building a political constituency encompassing a trans-national civil society and public sphere
Image of Europe's civil society	The plurality of organisations taken collectively; broad definition of CSOs embracing all types of voluntary non-profit organisations	Stakeholders, private (economic) actors who are affected by EU policies and have the capacity to contribute to joint problem solving	‘Stand-by citizens’ and general interest associations acting in and forming a political public sphere through public deliberation
Added-value civil society can bring	Better awareness of the plurality of interests; broadening the range of expert knowledge; giving citizens a voice; bringing the EU closer to the people	Efficient and effective problem solving; better law making by involving stakeholders; upgrading of common interests through deliberation and mutual learning	Sense of social cohesion; generalized support/active citizenship providing a communicative space accessible for all; an EU-wide public sphere
Functional role of civil society in the EU system	CSOs are intermediaries in the EU political system	Stakeholders are co-producers in European governance	The social constituency of the European polity
	Policy oriented	Service oriented	Polity oriented
Conception	EU a regulatory political system	EU a system of governance	EU an emergent polity
Role of civil society in EU governance	Redress the hegemony of the expert-bureaucrat coalition; support policy coherence, smooth implementation and compliance through partnership	Management efficiency; involving stakeholders allows for decentralised administration; redressing the preponderance of social partnership	Shed the light of publicity on governance; provide alternatives through public deliberation; mobilise knowledge on the social fabric
Field of involvement	Participation in agenda setting and policy consultation; participation in and monitoring of implementation	Co-regulation; enrich the knowledge base of decisions; proximity management and implementation	Permeating the European political discourse; activating citizens for a trans-national civil dialogue
Relevance of participatory engineering	Regulation on openness, transparency, participation; taking account of and redressing inequalities; make participation pay	Encouraging social entrepreneurs; designing new forms of social involvement; investing in feed-back and evaluation	Citizenship; legally protected space for public deliberation; investment in civic literacy; opposition to regulatory interference