Transnational Civil Society's Coalitions. A Way Out of the Zugzwang?

Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2013)

24 Pages Posted: 13 Nov 2013

See all articles by Gianluca Sgueo

Gianluca Sgueo

Center for Social Studies - University of Coimbra; European Parliamentary Research Service; New York University

Date Written: November 13, 2013

Abstract

This paper describes the civil society’s involvement in supranational policy-making in terms of a Zugzwang. This is the situation of a player whose turn it is to move and who has no move that does not worsen his/her position. Undoubtedly, over the years civil society’s actors operating at the international level have contributed in fostering stakeholders’ participation. They also have promoted the right to access to documents, and they have fostered the clarity of procedures.

Yet, the influence of civil society actors operating beyond the States has proven to be erratic and temporary. Their accountability rate has proven fable, and their efficiency has been criticized. Hence, the metaphor of the Zugzwang: the larger is the number of non-state actors operating at the supranational level, and the more they get involved in supranational policy-making, the greater its effectiveness seems to be challenged.

Is there a way out of the Zugzwang? This paper argues that the growing number of hierarchically organized and formalized fora of civil society actors – which are named “interlocutory coalitions” – may be considered as a plausible solution to span counterproductive confrontation among the many voices from civil society, and as an opportunity to better advocate towards International Organizations. Viewed as such, interlocutory coalitions appear as loopholes helpful to non-state actors to fulfill its mandates as well as means to enforce the democratization of the supranational legal arena.

The paper is divided into two parts. Part I focuses on the description of interlocutory coalitions. This empirical account serves three main purposes: (1) first, to map the most important networks of non-state actors; (2) second, to provide a foundation for the claim that these networks are increasingly active in the supranational arena; (3) third, to describe how interlocutory coalitions interacts with International Organizations. Part II expounds the tensions related with the rise of interlocutory coalitions and considers the possible future evolutions of transnational civil society’s networking. The former include: (1) the problems related to the coalitions’ functioning. Holding civil society groups together in a coalition is a difficult task. This is especially apparent when networks grow bigger and, in consequence, the likeliness of controversial positions among its members increases; (2) the possibility that different coalitions enter in competition; (3) the loss of creativity and experimentation that might occur when the same standards and practices are massively recycled from different coalitions.

Keywords: Democracy, Participation, NGO, Civil Society, Transnational, Globalization, Transparency, Lobbying, Lobby, Network, Networking, Coalition, International, Legal, Law, Stakeholder

Suggested Citation

Sgueo, Gianluca and Sgueo, Gianluca, Transnational Civil Society's Coalitions. A Way Out of the Zugzwang? (November 13, 2013). Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2013), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2353760

Gianluca Sgueo (Contact Author)

Center for Social Studies - University of Coimbra ( email )

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European Parliamentary Research Service ( email )

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New York University ( email )

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