During recent years, civil society legitimacy has generated a growing interest in scholarly research. The present article therefore proposes four normative criteria, namely, independence, transparency, participation, and inclusion, in order to start assessing civil society legitimacy...

It is often claimed that the participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) can mitigate the democratic deficit of the European Union. This claim rests on the assumption that civil society organizations channel citizens' concerns to the European institutions, a view which is also shared by...

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play an active and noteworthy role in governance, both at the national and international level. Three questions arise: First, how do CSOs exercise their advocacy, what repertoires, strategies and resources do they use? Second, to what degree are they...