Giants and dwarfs:the multilevel lobbying strategies of national interest organizations

The article addresses the bias in interest representation within the EU by examining the lobbying strategies of national interest organisations within the EU’s multilevel political system. Both our theoretical framework, which includes the determinants of a national interest organisation's decision to act at the EU level, and the data analysis from the INTEREURO Multi-Level Governance Module (MLG) (www.intereuro.eu) reveal three main findings. Firstly, the greatest differentiation among interest organisations (IOs) appears to be between those IOs from the older member states (Germany, the UK and the Netherlands), which exhibit above-average levels of activity, and those from the newer EU member states (Sweden, Slovenia), which exhibit below-average levels of activity. Secondly, the variations in IO activity levels are much greater from country to country than from one policy field to another. Thirdly, although the IOs from all five countries in our study are more likely to employ media and publishing strategies (information politics) than to mobilise their members and supporters (protest politics), we can still observe national patterns in their selection of strategies and in the intensity of their instrumentalisation

Epidemija COVID-19 v Sloveniji, odnos do neenakosti in protestni potencial

V članku so predstavljene ugotovitve raziskav Slovensko javno mnenje, ki so bile izvedene tik pred začetkom epidemije ter v prvem in drugem valu epidemije. V članku nas zanima vpliv percepcije in vrednotenja družbenih neenakosti na protestno participacijo državljanov. Bolj konkretno: zanima nas, kako se te zaznave povezujejo z dejanskim položajem posameznikov in kako součinkovanje obojega prispeva k nezadovoljstvu, ki se kaže kot pripravljenost na proteste. Izhajamo iz teorije relativne deprivacije, ki se kaže kot relevantna za pojasnjevanje pojavljanja protestov v kriznih časih. Rezultati raziskave potrjujejo relevantnost teorije še posebej v času krize oziroma nenapovedanega in nenadnega izbruha zamere, ko običajni pojasnjevalni modeli političnega delovanja ne zadoščajo. Izkaže se, da bistven sprožilec kolektivnega ravnanja pri tem ni absolutna stiska, ampak je lahko protestno ravnanje posledica relativne stopnje deprivacije v posamezni družbeni skupini. Pomembna je diskrepanca med specifičnimi in za posamezno socialno skupino legitimnimi pričakovanji (glede norm, življenjskega standarda in družbenega položaja) ter ocenami o tem, ali se bodo ta pričakovanja uresničila

Who says what to whom? Alignments and arguments in EU policy-making

In the EU multilevel polity, domestic interest groups seek to shape EU legislation by accessing both national and EU institutions. Previous studies indicated that institutional and issue contexts, as well as organizational characteristics shape their strategies of interest representation. However, we know much less about how alignments and arguments impact on their participation in EU and national policy consultations. Addressing this gap, we investigate the lobbying strategies of almost 2,900 national interest organizations from five member states (Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) on 20 EU directive proposals bringing also a new empirical scope to the study of multilevel interest representation. The findings indicate that alignments and arguments shape the participation of domestic interest groups in consultations on EU policies. We infer from our study that some general predictions of interest group behaviour are overstretched and outline four variations of interest representation routines

Europeanisation as a factor of national interest group political-cultural change: the case of interest groups in Slovenia

Based on a social constructivist framing, this article seeks to address the gap in the literature on the impact of Europeanisation on the national interest group political culture in general and in the post-communist context in particular. The impacts of Europeanisation on interest group domestic policy behaviour, in terms of national interest groups networking with their European counterparts, their contacts with EU-level decision makers, and their access to EU funds, are tested based on the panel surveys that were conducted in 1996 and 2012 of the most influential interest groups in eleven policy fields in Slovenia. Our key findings are that Europeanisation does support changes in the national interest group political culture in the direction of a more proactive approach in influencing national policy processes. However, Europeanisation explains only a small portion of the variability among the domestic policy behaviour of interest groups

Odnos javnosti do znanosti in tehnologije: kakovost merjenja tega odnosa v okviru javnomnenjske ankete (primer raziskave Slovensko javno mnenje)

The paper is focused on the quality of measurment of attitudes toward science and technology in frame of public opinion surveys. We are interested in attitudes of "lay public" or "general public" as measured in the Slovene public opinion surveys in 1995 and in 1999. Two measurement scales were tested. They were designed to measure the following two dimensions of attitudes towards science and tehnology: a) perception of scientific and technological development\u27s impact on everyday life of individuals and b) positive/negative expectations with regard to future technological development. Using principal components analysis the validity and reliability of the scales were analysed. In that way latent dimensions behind the scales and consistency of the scales were discovered. On the interpretative level, content validity of the scales was also tested. Results are as follows: a) thescales assure sufficent level of reliabilityb) the scales have fulfilled expectations regarding their validity - they measure several dimensions of attitudes towards science and technology and c) in line with our theoretical expectations, scales reveal multi-layered and controversal attitudes of "lay individuals" towards issues of scientific and technological developmen

Social indequalities structure schemes and theoretic concepts

Izhodišče je koncept večdimenzionalnosti prostora družbene neenakosti. Možno je razlikovati dva temeljna tipa strukturiranja družbe: na temelju funkcionalno-relacijske sheme in na temelju kontinuuma hierarhije družbenih položajev. Ta dva tipa implicirata dva pristopa k proučevanju socialne strukture:rezrednega in stratifikacijskega. Gre za prepletanje obeh, zahtevana pa je enotna teorija, ki bi povezovala obe shemi. Ilustrativen je prikaz treh idealno-tipskih modelov socialne stratifikacije, ki prikazujejo povezanost med podsistemom vlog (ki ustreza funkcionalno relacijski shemi) in podsistemom porazdelitve dobrin (ki ustraza hierarhični shemi)

Political participation, democratisation and citizens\u27 values in Europe

This article addresses the issue of political participation in the context of the process of democratisation, social development, and social changes in general. Particular emphasis is placed on the attempt to explain the differences in the levels of political participation, the differences between European countries, and the role that values play in these differences. Based on data from the "European Social Survey" (ESS), multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the analytical model of the factors of political participation in various European countries at both the individual level and the macro societal level. In so doing, changes over time and differences between old and young democracies were also observed. The results suggest that the differences between old and new democracies persist. In light of this trend, one particularly important finding is that values play an important role in political participation, but only in the developed countries of Western Europe which have a long democratic tradition.Članek obravnava problematiko politične participacije tako, da jo umesti v kontekst procesov demokratizacije, družbenega razvoja in družbenih sprememb nasploh. Poseben poudarek je dan na poskus pojasnjevanja ravni politične participacije, razlik med evropskimi državami in še posebej vloge vrednot, ki jih različni avtorji povezujejo s procesi demokratizacije in družbenega razvoja. Na podlagi podatkov evropske družboslovne anketne raziskave "European Social Survey" (ESS) se z uporabo multiple linearne regresije preverja model dejavnikov politične participacije tako na ravni posameznikov kot na makro družbeni ravni evropskih držav. Pri tem se opazuje tudi spremembe v času in razlike med starimi in mladimi demokracijami. Rezultati nakazujejo ohranjanje razlik med mladimi in starimi demokracijami. Pri tem je še posebej pomembna ugotovitev, da so vrednote pomemben dejavnik politične participacije, vendar le v razvitih državah zahodne Evrope z daljšo demokratično tradicijo