The Domestic Opportunity Structure and Supranational Activity

Abstract

This study examines when and why environmental non-governmental organizations in the United Kingdom, France and Germany bypass national-level activity in favor of supranational action. Data are gathered from a content analysis of news wires and analyzed in a series of logistic equations. Evidence supports the multi-level governance theory of European Union integration. Examining political opportunity structure explanations for activity, I find that changes in domestic elite alliances and electoral cleavages help to explain why groups choose to target activity at the supranational level. When the domestic opportunity structure is closed, supranational activity becomes more likely. The opening of the domestic political opportunity structure decreases supranational activity among groups.

Mind the (Mobilization) Gap: Comparing Climate Activism in the United States and European Union

“…A similarly compensatory—if inverted—dynamic is also evident in the EU. Societal groups who feel their demands are unheeded at the member state level have deliberately sought to bypass that level and engage EU actors instead (Corbett & Watson, 2012; Poloni‐Staudinger, 2008). In both multilevel systems, actors at lower levels can try to shape and even “upload” ideas subsequently spread across either Europe (see Andersen & Liefferink, 1997) or the United States (see Posner, 2010).…”