Policy Networks in Europe: Challenges for Democratic Organization and Citizen Voice in the European Process

The problem of creating democratic institutions in the new architecture of Europe is among the most pressing that social sciences can be asked to address. This issue seems to play a significant role in Northern European citizen dissatisfaction with Europe, and it could be the case that an adequate answer to these issues might prop up the relative lukewarm feelings toward the European Union. At present the majority of European citizens are indifferent or downright negative to the continued existence of the EU and feel that their country has not benefitted from European Union membership (European Commission 1999:37). The challenge is to distill the best of existing European models of governance on the one hand, and to create new and innovative architectures that face the problems of international and multi-cultural federation on the other. Can national forms of governance and administration cope with the issues that the European Union confronts? The criticisms launched against the EU are in some ways similar to those faced by the United Nations or other international organizations. In terms of its efficiency and ability to carry out political decisions, such institutions suffer from being indirectly modeled on national state methods of governance, based on considerable consensus. Yet international organization unites considerable diversity. Further, the EU differs in important ways from the UN in having ambitions to include political representation of citizens at a supra-national level. This is entirely new, yet radically new institutions have not appeared.1