‘Europeanizing’ Civil Society: NGOs as Agents of Political Socialization

As a strategy for tackling the ‘democratic deficit’, attention is increasingly shifting towards the ‘Europeanization’ of civil society, the latter being traditionally viewed as a means both to limit state power and to promote intra‐citizenry solidarity. However, this attempted change requires in turn actors who are both able and willing to act as agents of political socialization in the context of EU policy‐making. This article examines the emphasis placed by both EU actors and the current academic literature on NGOs as such agents. Drawing on an analysis of similar claims made in development policy, I isolate the main indicators of NGOs' ability to foster the Europeanization of civil society via political socialization and put forward seven key tests of their ability to carry out this function in the EU context. These are then evaluated against the results of original empirical investigations. I argue that NGOs are currently unsuited to the task of Europeanizing civil society thanks to their inability to promote the political socialization of their supporters. As a consequence that task requires EU‐level institutional reform informed by iterated public dialogue, as well as change in the working practices of NGOs.