engleski

Exploring the Effects of Europeanization on the Interest Groups’ Influence on Policy-Making Process in Croatia

The paper aims to contribute to a further understanding of rather divergent effects of the Europeanisation on the influence of interest groups in policy processes in Croatia. In general, the EU accession process created numerous additional opportunities for interest organizations to get involved into European networking activities, build lasting transnational partnerships and experience changes in their political perceptions and influence strategies. Due to specific features of the accession negotiations, marked by the system of benchmarking and strong reliance of the EU institutions on the independent sources of data on the actual implementation of the EU acquis, many interest groups were provided with new access goods enabling them to play more decisive role and strenghten their visibility in domestic policy- making environment. Nevertheless, despite an ever increasing number of EU driven opportunity structures, the involvement of the interest groups in the essential agenda-setting phase of the policy making process still remains very limited. Based on various theoretical approaches, and drawing on the available empirical data, the paper will offer some insights into key catalysts and constraints shaping the mobilization of Croatian interest groups in the pre-accession period.

Interest groups; europeanization; croatia; policy making

Sažetak dostupan u Zborniku sažetaka (Collection of abstracts) na internetskoj stranici http://arhiva.politologija.hr/hrv/konferencije/ipsa- rc32-conference-2011-dubrovnik/34/program/227/