Exploring Organized Interests in Post-Communist Policy-Making The "Missing Link"

This book examines organized interests in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), providing incisive analyses in three critically important policy areas - healthcare, higher education and energy. The four countries surveyed – Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic – afford rich diversity offering broad empirical material available for cross-country and cross-policy comparative analyses. Featuring interdisciplinary research, the book draws together recent developments in the evolution of post-communist advocacy organizations, their population ecology dynamics, interest intermediation, the influence of organized interests and their (bottom-up and top-down) Europeanization. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Central and Eastern European politics, interest groups and lobbying, post-communism, transition and consolidation studies, and more broadly to European studies/politics. The Open Access version of this book, available at: http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003049562, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

1. Introduction - The "Missing Link": Exploring Organized Interests in Post-Communist Policy-Making Michael Dobbins and Rafal Riedel Part 1: Population Ecology 2. There Is No Tabula Rasa: The effect of varieties of communism on organizational formation rates in pre-transition interest group populations Rafael Labanino, Michael Dobbins and Rafal Riedel 3. Exploring Populations of Organized Interests in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe Michael Dobbins, Rafael Labanino and Brigitte Horváthová Part 2: Interest Intermediation 4. In Search of Civic Participation: Advocacy tactics in the energy and environmental sector in post-communist Europe Szczepan Czarnecki 5. Exploring Interest Intermediation in Central and Eastern European Healthcare: Persistent statism, unfettered pluralism or a shift to corporatism? Michael Dobbins, Emilia Piotrowska and Maximilian von Bronk Part 3: Influence of Organized Interests 6. Green Advocacy and Climate and Energy Policy Access in Central Eastern Europe Szczepan Czarnecki, Emilia Piotrowska and Rafal Riedel 7. Interest Group Access in CEE in the Healthcare Sector Brigitte Horváthová and Michael Dobbins 8. Explaining Institutional Persistence and Change in Polish and Czech Higher Education from a Stakeholder Perspective Aleš Vlk, Michael Dobbins and Rafal Riedel Part 4: Europeanization Effects 9. At the Crossroads of Europeanization and Professionalization: A cross-country and cross-policy analysis of organized interests in CEE Szczepan Czarnecki and Rafal Riedel Part 5: Excursions to Other Territory 10. Analyzing Polish and Czech Hard Coal-Mining Trade Unions and Their Positions towards EU Climate and Energy policy Tomasz Kubin 11. Between Mission and Interests: The evolving role of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic and Poland Joanna Kulska 12. Filling the Blanks: Political parties, interest groups and representation of civil society Pawel Kaminski Conclusions 13. Rounding up our Journey through the World of Organized Interests in the Post-Communist CEE Region Michael Dobbins, Emilia Piotrowska and Rafal Riedel

Michael Dobbins is Adjunct Professor of Policy Analysis at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Rafal Riedel is a professor in the Institute of Political Science and Administration at Opole University, Poland.