Participatory Democracy and Civil Society in the EU - Agenda-Setting and Institutionalisation (Relié)

Luis Bouza Garcia analyses the institutionalisation of these participatory mechanisms by asking what EU institutions and civil society organisations were aiming to achieve in the agenda-setting process. This book analyses the discourses and activism of the actors involved in the agenda-setting, recognition and implementation of these participatory mechanisms at EU level from 1997 to 2012. Bouza Garcia finds that the aims of civil society organisations - namely recognised access to the EU - were more stable than those of the EU institutions that have evolved by fostering participatory democracy to enhance transparency and debates in the European public sphere.
Participatory Democracy and Civil Society in the EU concludes that the field of civil society participation is not yet fully stabilised and will continue to evolve.