Interest Groups and Social Movements

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the Europeanization of interest organizations and social movements. Emphasis will be placed on the strategies these collective actors have adopted to represent their interests in the European Union (EU), on their influence in EU policy making, and on the EU effects on domestic interest intermediation. Even though organized interests have been steady companions of European integration, the bulk of attention has always been devoted to EU-level interest groups and interest intermediation (see Greenwood 2003a). Singling out the EU’s impact on domestic interests has only recently began to receive attention so that the analysis of this topic is characterized by notable research gaps and important areas of controversy and ambiguity.