Rediscovering Europe in the Netherlands - St Antony's College ...

ediscovering europe in the netherlands
5.5 conclusion
In its present form, civil society does not offer any ready-made opportunities
for contributing to the legitimisation of eu policy in the Netherlands:
civil society organisations are too closely intertwined with the segmented
state apparatus, and eu policy is too much a marginal rather than a central
part of their activities. Moreover, those organisations which do concern
themselves with eu policy are less focused on the national political and
administrative systems because they are not very concerned with issues
of accountability and representativeness. The configuration of Dutch civil
society is corporatist in nature, which means that a central role is accorded
to sectors that are relatively immune to influence from eu policy. On top
of this, as a result of this corporatist system, ties between the Dutch government
and civil society organisations are often so strong that there is little
incentive for them to function as a counterweight to the government; the
traditional organisations, especially, tend to follow the government line.
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However, there are opportunities and possibilities for civil society’s
contributions to eu policy legitimisation. A number of examples have
been discussed in this chapter in which civil society played, or could have
played, a bigger role in that legitimisation process. These were mainly
incidental contributions and experiences of civil society organisations
which could serve as an example for a more structural involvement in the
future. The way in which these perspectives might contribute to the four
legitimisation dimensions is discussed below.
Output
Civil society’s contribution to the implementation of policy is the most
important factor for the government when it comes to eu policy. The input
of civil society organisations, which often have a wealth of knowledge and
expertise, can improve the substantive quality of policy. The legitimacy
of policy outcomes is however also closely related to the other legitimacy
dimensions. Citizens will be more willing to accept new policy if civil
society organisations have taken part in the decision making process and
different social interests have therefore been represented in that process.
Moreover, a sufficiently varied input from civil society would open the
way for new directions in eu policy and could avoid problems in the
implementation of that policy (see, for an example, the Habitats Directive).
Input
Civil society is important as a means of articulating and promoting the
interests, objectives and values of the community. Civil society organisations
will be encouraged to assume this role when dealing with eu policies