Research Papers

There is a democratic dilemma between citizen participation and system effectiveness, and therefore a point after which participation inevitably runs counter to the problem-solving capacity of a political unit. This is as much relevant for the European commission as it is for any other administration. The question is therefore not if, but how and where the Commission, when consulting civil society, strikes the balance between the contrary needs for wide participation and effective administration. With a view to answer this question, the consultations which DG Employment holds prior to proposing social policy instruments will be analysed as a structure of political opportunity which influences, through the funding opportunities provided and the instruments of consultation used, social CSOs seen as the subject of those consultations. A rather elitist picture of European civil society, to some extent mitigated by the flourishing of new public consultation instruments, will emerge from this examination (Section 1). Nonetheless, elitism, which seems quite symptomatic of the democratic deficiencies of the Commission’s consultation regime more generally, is increasingly tamed by the enactment of procedural rules aiming at, on the one hand, opening consultations to a wider audience (Section 2) and, on the other, democratising European civil society (Section 3). Yet, in both cases, a legally-binding approach is resisted by the Commission, which prefers resorting to soft law as a means to balance the conflicting demands for democracy and effectiveness (Conclusion).