Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T22:19:57.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Eurogroups, clientela, and the European Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Get access

Abstract

A new approach is suggested to analyze the relations between the EC and national administrations on the one hand and the EC and national interest groups on the other. Drawing from research in comparative politics and public administration, the essay examines the working relationship between a government agency and an interest group in order to see what functions each performs. Under certain conditions, there arises a situation called clientela, a close relationship between agency and group. When studying the EC, a crucial question concerns the reasons why an interest group would forsake a productive national relationship for a new one at the Community level. One conclusion suggests that the extent of national clientela will determine both the development of Community-level interests groups as well as the strength of EC-national interest group linkages.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Siotis, Jean, “Some Problems of European Secretariats,” Journal of Common Market Studies, II (1964)Google Scholar; 222 ff; Duclos, Pierre, “La politification: trois exposes,” Politique, revue Internationale des doctrines et des institutions, XIV (0406, 1961): 2372Google Scholar. Siotis criticizes Commission members and Duclos for these extreme claims.

2 Lowi, Theodore J., “American Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and Political Theory,” World Politics XVI (07, 1964): 677715CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Meynaud, Jean pointed out the problems with this research in “Les ‘groupes de pression’ en Europe Occidentale: état des travaux,” Revue française des sciences politiques, IX, 1 (03 1959): 229–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Almond, Gabriel, “A Comparative Study of Interest Groups and the Political Process,” American Political Science Review LII, 1 (03 1958): 270–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Harry Eckstein and David Apter, ed., Comparative Politics (New York: Free Press, 1963): 397–407. The SSRC scheme, as presented by Almond, is marred by its obvious penchant for a “neutral” bureaucracy, an “effective” parliament, “moderate” interest groups, and “disciplined” parties. The United Kingdom obviously emerges as the winner. See p. 406 in Almond, in Eckstein and Apter.

5 LaPalombaia, Joseph, “The Utility and Limitations of Interest Group Theory in Non-American Field Situations,” Journal of Politics XXII (02 1960): 2949CrossRefGoogle Scholar; reprinted in Eckstein and Apter, pp. 421–30; p. 430.

6 Meynaud, Jean and Sidjanski, Ousan, Les groupes de pression dans la Communauté europenne: 1958–1968 (Brussels: Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1971), p. 383Google Scholar.

7 The major American writer on interest groups in the EC, and perhaps the first to assign major theoretical importance to them, is Ernst Haas. See his Challenge of Regionalism,” International Organization XIII (1958): 440–58Google Scholar; The Uniting of Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958)Google Scholar, a study of labor, professional and party organizations in the European Coal and Steel Community; “Technocracy, Pluralism, and the New Europe,” in Graubard, Stephen, ed., A New Europe (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964): pp 6288Google Scholar, which presents politics and economics as part of a continuum and hopes for the dominance of economic questions in politics because of the spur to supranationalism which this will provide. The literature on Haas' theory of neofunctionalism is vast; for a review and a critique, see Green, Andrew Wilson, “Review Article: Mitrany Reread with the Help of Haas and Sewell,” Journal of Common Market Studies I (09 1969): 5069CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Two attempts to apply Haas' perspectives to the Community, both on the subject of British membership, are: Lieber, Robert J., British Politics and European Unity: Parties, Elites, and Pressure Groups (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970)Google Scholar, and Brenner, Michael J., Technocratic Politics and the Functionalist Theory of European Integration (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1969)Google Scholar.

General surveys of EC groups are: Sidjanski, Dusan, “Pressure Groups and the European Community,” Government and Opposition II (1967): 397416CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Neunreither, Karl, ’Wirtschaftsverbände im Prozess der Europäischen Integration,” in Friedrich, Carl J., ed., Politische Dimensionen der Europäischen Gemeinschaftsbildung (Cologne: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1968): 358442CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jean Meynaud and Dusan Sidjanski, Les groupes de pression dans la Communauté europénne: 1958–1968; Meynaud, Jean, “Les groupes de pression dans la CEE,” in Gerbet, P. and Pepy, D., eds., La dècision dans les Communautès europènnes (Brussels: Universitè Libre de Bruxelles, 1969): pp 297320Google Scholar; Friedrich, Carl J., Europe, : An Emergent Nation? (New York: Harper and Row, 1969)Google Scholar; Europa Institut, Pressiegroepen in de EEG (Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1965)Google Scholar; Feld, Werner, “National Economic Interest Groups and Policy Formation in the EEC,” Political Science Quarterly LXXXI, 2 (06 1966)Google Scholar; 392–411; Fischer, Fritz, Die Institutionalisierte Vertretung der Verbände in der Europäischen Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft (Hamburg: Hansischer Gildenverlag, 1965)Google Scholar.

For labor, see: Bouvard, Marguerite, Labor Movements in the Common Market Countries: the Formation of a European Pressure Group (New York: Praeger, 1972)Google Scholar; Beever, Colin, European Unity and the Trade Union Movement (Leyden: A.W. Sijthoff, 1960)Google Scholar; Vigtel, P. M., “Fagbovegelsen sem interessegruppe ved EEC,” [Trade Unions as Interest Groups in the EEC], International Politics (Bergen), V (1968): 511–27Google Scholar.

For business and professional groups, see: Meynaud, Jean and Sidjanski, Dusan, L'Europe des affaires (Paris: Payot, 1967)Google Scholar; Grant, W. P., “British Employers' Associations and the Enlarged Community,” Journal of Common Market Studies XI, 4 (06 1973): 276–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Feld, Werner J., Transnational Business Collaboration Among Common Market Countries (New York: Praeger, 1970)Google Scholar; Szokoloczy-Syllaba, Janos, Les organisations professionnelles françaises et le Marché Commun (Paris: Armand Colin, 1965)Google Scholar.

For agriculture, see: Nina Heathcote, Argicultural Politics in the European Community (Canberra: Australian National University, 1971)Google Scholar; Nielsen, Terkel T., “Aspects of the EEC influence of European Groups in the Decision-Making Process: the Common Agricultural Policy,” Government and Opposition VI, 4 (Autumn, 1971): 539–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robinson, Alan D., Dutch Organized Agriculture in International Politics (The Hague: A. Nijhoff, 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Muth, Hanns Peter, French Agriculture and the Political Integration of Western Europe (Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1970)Google Scholar; Zeller, Adrien and Giraudy, Jean-Louis, L'imbroglio agricole du Marche Commun (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1970)Google Scholar.

8 The importance of the European Parliament, rather, lies in the possible expansion of its powers in the future. Federalists and Socialists decry the lack of democratic mechanisms linking the European electorates to the EC institutions and urge direct elections and expanded powers for the European Parliament. See Warnecke, Steven Joshua, “The European Community After British Entry: Federation or Confederation?” in Warnecke, , ed., The European Community in the 1970's (New York: Praeger, 1972), p. 5Google Scholar; Dahrendorf, Ralf, Guardian (Manchester), 08 3, 1971, p. 2–GGoogle Scholar. For the complex details of plans to increase the European Parliament's budgetary powers, see: Coombes, David and Wiebecke, Iika, The Power of the Purse in the European Communities (London: Chatham House, 1972)Google Scholar.

9 Warnecke, p. 21.

10 Beer, Samuel, British Politics in the Collectivist Age (Cambridge, Mass.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), p. 319Google Scholar.

11 For the US, see Lowi, Theodore J., The End of Liberalism (New York: Norton, 1969)Google Scholar; for France, see: Duverger, Maurice, Institutions politiques (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1966), pp. 479 ffGoogle Scholar,; for Italy see: LaPalombara, Joseph, Interest Groups in Italian Politics (Princeton; Princeton University Press, 1964)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, chap. 8. One may argue that functions are not in fact shifting from parliament to the executive; rather, in earlier times parliaments never engaged in certain tasks such as economic planning or the provision of welfare services. As these tasks arose, they were taken up immediately by the executive.

12 Key, V. O., Politics, Parties and Pressure Groups (New York: Crowell, 1956), p. 168Google Scholar.

13 Lane, Edgar, “Interest Groups and Bureaucracy,” Annals of the American Academy of Politics and Social Science CCXCII (03 1954)Google Scholar; 105.

14 Sometimes those groups which would seem to have a great interest in an issue lie dormant even though they have adequate organizational resources: See Bauer, Raymond, Dexter, Lewis, and Pool, Ithiel de Sola, American Business and Public Policy (New York: Atherton Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

15 But the political culture may view pressure on certain issues as improper; see Brenner, chap. 2.

16 Sometimes the government structure may be so byzantine that even the most savvy lobbyist is at a loss to know whether or not a government official actually did fulfill his promise of support; see Dexter, Lewis, “The Job of the Congressman,” in Wolfinger, Raymond, ed., Readings on Congress (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1971)Google Scholar; pp 69–89.

17 Time, money, and energy are, of course, rarely evenly distributed.

18 LaPalombara, p. 254.

19 Ibid., pp. 255–6.

20 Ibid., pp. 262.

21 Ibid., pp. 271–84.

22 Ibid., pp. 285–303.

23 E.g., Marx, Fritz Morstein, The Administrative State: An Introduction to Bureaucracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), pp. 135 ffGoogle Scholar.

24 Barnard, Chester, The Function of the Executive (Cambridge, Mass,: Harvard University Press, 1971Google Scholar; original edition, 1938), pp. 115–22.

25 Long, Norton E., “Policy and Administration,” Public Administration Review IX, 4 (Autumn, 1949)Google Scholar; 257–9.

26 Rourke, Francis E., Bureaucracy, Politics, and Public Policy (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969), pp. 1419Google Scholar. The process whereby an agency is “captured” is presented in Bernstein, Marvin, Regulating Business by Independent Commission (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Independent Regulatory Agencies: A Perspective on their Reform,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science CD (03 1972)Google Scholar; 14–26.

27 Zeiglei, L. Harmon and Peak, G. Wayne, Interest Groups in American Society (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1972, second edition)Google Scholar.

28 Ibid., chap. 3.

29 Ibid., pp. 168–80.

30 Schmitter, Philippe, “Still the Century of Corporatism?Review of Politics XXXVI, 1 (01 1974): 94–5Google Scholar.

31 Ibid., p. 96.

32 Beer, p. 70.

33 Kornhauser, William, The Politics of Mass Society (New York: Free Press, 1959)Google Scholar.

34 “Whenever there is expropriation of major social functions by large organizations, smaller groups lose their reason for existence.” Kornhauser, , p. 89Google Scholar. Kornhauser never considers the functions performed by interest groups regarding the formulation and implementation of public policy. For a discussion of these functions and a summary of the relevant literature, see LaPalombara, Joseph, Politics Within Nations (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1974)Google Scholar, chap. 9.

35 Lindberg, Leon and Scheingold, Stuart, Europe's Would-Be Polity (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1970)Google Scholar, chap. 5.

36 By the late 1960s, there were four “European parties”: Socialists, Christian Democrats, Liberals, and the European Democratic Union (Gaullist), organized across the national delegations in the European Parliament. Mahotiere, Stuart de la, Towards One Europe (Hammondsworth, England: Penguin, 1970), p. 301Google Scholar.

37 Holt, Stephen, The Common Market (London, H. Hamilton, 1967) p. 86Google Scholar.

38 Pickles, William, “Political Power in the EEC,” Journal of Common Market Studies II. 1 (1963): 84Google Scholar, note 8.

39 LaPalombara, , Interest Groups in Italian Politics, p. 306Google Scholar.

40 Ibid., pp. 329–31.

41 von Gesau, F. A. M. Alting, Beyond the European Community (Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1967), p. 56Google Scholar.

42 Lindberg, Leon, The Political Dynamics of European Community (Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1967), p. 56Google Scholar.

42 Lindberg, Leon, The Political Dynamics of European Integration (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963), p. 53Google Scholar.

43 I am indebted for this point to LaPalombara. One of the benefits of adapting theories of national interest groups to the EC is that it makes explicit certain assumptions which remain implicit for analyses of national systems, e.g., that all national ministries do in fact possess power to affect interest groups significantly. Interview, New Haven, Conn., May 1974.

44 Shonfield, Andrew, The Listener, 11 20, 1969, p. 698Google Scholar.

45 The descriptive phrases for the agency and group variables aie taken from LaPalombara, Interest Groups in Italian Politics chap. 8.

46 European Trends, 35 (May 1973): 10–11.

47 LaPalombara, p. 273.

48 For a description of Eurogroups and their attitudes toward EC regulation, see Friedrich, p. 307; Muth, passim. The DBV's policy is set forth in Willis, F. Roy, France, Germany, and the New Europe, 1945–1967 (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), pp. 288 ffGoogle Scholar.

49 LaPalombara, ibid., p. 274.

50 Meynaud and Sidjanski, pp. 541–3.

51 Nielsen, p. 547.

52 Holt, p. 184.

53 Ibid., p. 57.

54 Helen Feldstein, interview, Providence, R.I., March 1974.

55 Ehrmann points out that if an agency must deal with fragmented clienteles, it may be able to play one off against another and obtain considerable freedom of action. Ehrmann, Henry, “French Bureaucracy and Organized Interests,” Administrative Science Quarterly V (03 1961), p. 548Google Scholar.

56 Farnsworth, Clyde H., “Extensive Fraud Charged in Europe Farm Subsidies,” New York Times, 05 20, 1973, p. 1Google Scholar.

57 Feld, , “National Economic Interest Groups and Policy Formation in the EEC,” p. 402Google Scholar.

58 Commission interviews, Brussels, June 1974.

59 Friedrich, p. 78.

60 Meynaud and Sidjanski, p. 214.

62 Ibid., pp. 84–5.

63 Salmon, Jean A., “Le Role des representations permanentes,” in Gerbet, and Pepy, , La decision dans les Communautés européennes pp. 5774Google Scholar. Feld says that national interest groups seek to influence the Committee of Permanent Representatives, but he does not describe or assess their efforts; Feld, p. 404.

64 Pennock, Roland, “Agricultural Subsidies in Britain and America,” in Rose, Richard, ed. Policy Making in Britain (New York: Free Press, 1969), p. 211Google Scholar.

65 Feld, , Transnational Business Collaboration Among Common Market Countries, p. 94Google Scholar; Bany-Braunthal, Thomas, “Multinational Labor: European Workers Unite,” European Community, 04 1973, p. 22Google Scholar.

66 Feld, , ‘National Economic Interest Groups and Policy Formation in the EEC,” p. 396Google Scholar.

67 Feld, , Transnational Business Collaboration Among Common Market Countries, p. 94Google Scholar.

68 Friedrich, p. 112.

69 Feld, , “National Economic Interest Groups and Policy Formation in the EEC,” p. 401Google Scholar.