Role of Interest Groups in the Decision Making Process of the European

At present, there are approximately 3,000 different interest groups that are formally recognized by the European Union (Kirchner 2011). These interest groups represent a variety of interests and vary in the amount of influence that they actually have on the policy making process. These groups represent the interest of multiple sectors of both social and economic life within the European Union. Interests range from AGRICULTURE to BIG BUSINESS to HUMANITARIAN AID. In a truly pluralist nature, these groups are competing, either directly or indirectly, with each one another to have an influence in the legislation that is produced by the European Union. It is without a doubt that these interest groups within the European Union play an important part of the decision-making process. The blossoming interest group community within the European Union has both beneficial and detrimental impacts on the democratic quality of the European legislative process. By providing a background of i nterest groups and their influence in the decision-making process and comparing the role of interest groups within the European Union to those within the United States I will demonstrate the positive and negative qualities of interest group participation in the democratic process. In this paper, I will argue that interest groups are indeed a double-edged sword in affecting the democratic quality of European Union legislation. Before this topic can be adequately addressed, I believe that it is necessary to clarify a general definition of an interest group. For purposes of this paper, I will refer to Rainer Eising’s definition of an interest group, because I have found it to be the most expansive and relevant towards the argument being made in thi... ... of interest group lobbying far exceeds the negative; however the negative implications are of huge importance. Taking the current status of the full-fledged role of interest groups within the United States as a comparison to the nascent status of interest groups within the European Union, one can see the hazards of not addressing the negative discrepancies. It is my conclusion that the improvement of the democratic deficit as demonstrated by the interest groups thus far in the Union has proved the importance of interest group lobbying. Given this, I believe it is essential for attempts to be made by the European Union to mitigate the detrimental effects of political lobbying to ensure optimum democratic legitimacy into the future. The fact remains that at present, interest groups are seriously enhancing the democratic quality of European Union legislation.