The Monitoring Capacity of Civil Society Networks: A Social Network Analysis in the Case of Gender Equality Policy

The role of civil society organizations (CSOs) as a watchdog in the implementation process is widely acknowledged. However, little is known about what determines their capacity to monitor EU policy implementation and how it differs across member states. This article accounts for social capital as well as human and financial capital to determine the monitoring capacity of CSOs. To capture sources of social capital, a network analysis is applied in a comparative case article on the monitoring networks of national platforms of the European Women’s Lobby across eight EU member states. The analysis reveals that CSOs in western member states are rich in human, financial and social capital, while CSOs in CEE member states compensate for this lack of resources by linking up with the Commission.     

Expert network interaction in the European Medicines Agency

The need for supranational regulatory capacity and the drive for governmental control are two colliding forces in international governance. As a solution to this governance dilemma, European administrative networks need to simultaneously fulfill the demand for supranational institutions and maintain governmental control. The assessment of risks associated with medicines authorized on the European market is carried out by such a network of national regulators as part of the European Medicines Agency. To uncover how these double-hatted experts navigate the opportunity structures created by supranational and intergovernmental forces, this study employs social network analysis. Developing exponential random graph models, this study tests to what extent members can act as professional experts in service of the supranational administration and to what extent national features shape interaction. The results indicate that while PRAC members are socialized as professionals in service of supranational deliberation on pharmacovigilance, intergovernmental forces do structure their interactions.