Participation of Civil Society in New Modes of Governance
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Forschungsstelle Osteuropa Bremen Arbeitspapiere und Materialien No. 74 – February 2006 Participation of Civil Society in New Modes of Governance. The Case of the New EU Member States Part 2: Questions of Accountability Edited by Heiko Pleines Forschungsstelle Osteuropa an der Universität Bremen Klagenfurter Straße 3, D-28359 Bremen Tel. +49 421 218-3687, Fax +49 421 218-3269 http://www.forschungsstelle-osteuropa.de Arbeitspapiere und Materialien – Forschungsstelle Osteuropa, Bremen Working Papers of the Research Centre for East European Studies, Bremen No. 74: Heiko Pleines (ed.): Participation of Civil Society in New Modes of Governance. The Case of the New EU Member States Part 2: Questions of Accountability February 2006 ISSN: 1616-7384 This working paper has been produced as part of Project no. CIT1-CT-2004-506392 Integrated Project www.eu-newgov.org Priority 7 – Citizens and Governance in the Knowledge-based Society Funded by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme Reference number: 24/D4 – part two of two Lead contractor for this deliverable: Forschungsstelle Osteuropa (Research Centre for East European Studies), Bremen Authors: Michał Federowicz, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland (NEWGOV project partner No. 35) Martin Kay, Centre for Privatisation & Public Private Partnership, University of Limerick, Republic of Ireland (NEWGOV project partner No. 40) David Lane, University of Cambridge, UK (NEWGOV project partner No. 37) Aleksandra Lis, student of sociology, University of Nicolaus Copernicus in Toruń, Poland; trainee, Research Centre for East European Studies, Bremen, Germany (NEWGOV project partner No. 38) Zdenka Mansfeldová, Institute of Sociology, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic (NEWGOV project partner No. 34) Jakub Płażynski, student of law, University of Gdansk, Poland; trainee, Research Centre for East European Studies, Bremen, Germany (NEWGOV project partner No. 38) Heiko Pleines, Research Centre for East European Studies, Bremen, Germany (NEWGOV project partner No. 38) Michał Sitek, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland (NEWGOV project partner No. 35) Marcin Michał Wiszowaty, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Gdansk, Poland (by invitation) Language editor: Hilary Abuhove Technical editor: Matthias Neumann Cover based on a work of art by Nicholas Bodde Opinions expressed in publications of the Research Centre for East European Studies are solely those of the authors. This publication may not be reprinted or otherwise reproduced – entirely or in part – without prior consent of the Research Centre for East European Studies or without giving credit to author and source. © 2006 by Forschungsstelle Osteuropa, Bremen Forschungsstelle Osteuropa / Research Centre for East European Studies Publikationsreferat / Publications Dept. Klagenfurter Str. 3 D-28359 Bremen - Germany phone: +49 421-218-3687 fax: +49 421-218-3269 e-mail: fsopr@ uni-bremen.de internet: http://www.forschungsstelle-osteuropa.de Contents Heiko Pleines Introduction................................................................................................................................. 5 David Lane Civil Society Formation and Accountability in the New Post-Socialist EU Member States ........................................................................... 7 Zdenka Mansfeldová Political and Administrative Accountability in the Czech Republic .................................... 22 Michał Federowicz and Michał Sitek Accountability to the Forum: The Case of Civil Society Interacting with Political Institutions .......................................... 35 Marcin Michał Wiszowaty Legal Regulation of Lobbying in New Member States of the European Union ...................................................................... 46 Jakub Płażynski Public Protests in Poland. Legal Regulation and Legal Accountability............................................................................ 57 Martin Kay A New Approach to Legitimacy and Accountability. Limitations and Possibilities in the Context of the Enlarged EU.......................................... 77 Aleksandra Lis Bibliography: Political Activities and Accountability of Civil Society Organisations in the New EU Member States............................................ 101 Working Papers of the Research Centre for East European Studies................................. 115 E-Mail Newsletters of the Research Centre for East European Studies ........................................................................ 116 Heiko Pleines Introduction This working paper is part of a series presenting the results of a research team examining the impact of the 2004 EU enlargement on governance structures involving the participation of civil society organisations. The research team is part of the NEWGOV Integrated Project, led by the European University Institute.1 The aim of this Integrated Project is to examine the transformation of governance in and beyond Europe by mapping, evaluating and analysing the emergence, execution, and evo- lution of what we refer to as ‘New Modes of Governance’. By new modes of governance we mean the range of innovation and transformation that has been and continues to oc- cur in the instruments, methods, modes and systems of governance in contemporary poli- ties and economies, and especially within the European Union (EU) and its member states (both current and prospective).2 In this context the research team examines the participation of civil society organisations from the new EU member states with socialist pasts in (old and new forms of) governance, whereby civil society is broadly defined to include all collective non-state actors participating together with state (including EU) actors in different modes of governance. Thus the focus is not only on NGOs in the narrow sense but on trade unions and business associations as well. An analysis of these organisations and their involvement in different modes of political governance was given in our first working paper.3 In this second working paper we focus on questions of accountability at the national level, dis- tinguishing between its different forms and directions. Three forms are of relevance here: • Political accountability concerns responsibility for the contents of political decisions and refers to participants in the political decision-making process. • Administrative accountability concerns responsibility for bureaucratic implementation and refers to participants in the implementation process of political decisions. Administrative accountability is focused on the quality of implementation. • Legal accountability pertains to the forms of participation in policy making and implemen- tation. It concerns the legality of the means employed to influence decisions and refers to all participants in political decision-making and implementation. Accountability, as covered by the research team, goes in two directions: • Civil society organisations holding state (including EU) actors accountable. In this instance political and administrative accountability are most relevant, i.e. civil society organisations scrutinize the contents of policy measures and the quality of their implementation (much more than the rules of decision-making). 1 NEWGOV – New Modes of Governance, Project no. CIT1-CT-2004-506392, Integrated Project, Priority 7 – Citi- zens and Governance in the Knowledge-based Society, Funded by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme. The research team is part of project 24, which is directed by Daniela Obradovic, Amsterdam Center for International Law. The research team is headed by Heiko Pleines, Research Centre for East European Studies (For- schungsstelle Osteuropa, Bremen, Germany). Further NEWGOV partners in the research team are Michal Fed- erowicz (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw), David Lane (University of Cambridge, UK) and Zdenka Mansfeldová (Institute of Sociology, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Pra- gue). 2 For more information on the analytical framework of the integrated project see www.eu-newgov.org 3 Heiko Pleines (ed.): Participation of Civil Society in New Modes of Governance. The Case of the New EU Member States. Part 1: The State of Civil Society, Working Papers of the Research Centre for East European Studies (Ar- beitspapiere und Materialien der Forschungsstelle Osteuropa) No. 67 (May 2005). 6 Heiko Pleines (ed.) • State (including EU) actors holding civil society organisations accountable. In contrast, the focus here is not on the contents of policy recommendations but on the ways used to pro- mote them; in other words, the emphasis is on legal accountability. Accountability concerns the local, regional, national and the EU levels. As the same actors are present at all (or most) of the levels (especially on the side of civil society), questions of ac- countability can be addressed in a multilevel perspective. As a first step, the research team concentrates its analyses of the new EU member states on the national level for two main reasons. First, civil society organisations started to participate in EU governance only in 2004, when their countries joined the EU. Therefore, their actual experience with participation is still limited. Second, questions of legal accountability of civil society or- ganisations are primarily regulated at the national level. As a result, the involvement