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The European Commission's Online Consultations: A Success Story?
Author(s) -
QUITTKAT CHRISTINE
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5965.2010.02147.x
Subject(s) - transparency (behavior) , openness to experience , european commission , skepticism , commission , democracy , corporate governance , political science , accountability , quality (philosophy) , public relations , public administration , accounting , business , european union , psychology , law , social psychology , international trade , epistemology , philosophy , finance , politics
Although depicted as an instrument oriented towards improving European governance as well as the democratic quality of European decision‐making, the application of online consultations (OC) by the European Commission is accompanied by scepticism about their actual use. Based on a large‐N, quantitative analysis, this article examines the application of and participation patterns in OC. With regard to the most relevant indicators applied in the study – openness, transparency and inclusiveness – the analysis reveals rather mixed results: while OC enhance the involvement of interested parties and formally offer the possibility to give qualitative input, at present, OC are far from being inclusive, nor is their practice transparent.