The hustle: citizenship practice, NGOs and ‘policy coalitions’ in the European Union – the cases of Auto Oil, drinking water and unit pricing

European citizenship is underdeveloped and requires for its entrenchment a greater range of advocates and evidence of its utility. This article analyses the lobbying undertaken by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in four case study directives in order to establish whether such organizations can affect policy outcomes and thus serve as credible ambassadors for European Union (EU) citizenship. It argues that such is in fact the case, but that lobbying success depends on membership of fastchanging and issue-specific alliances usually constructed on an ad hoc basis - 'policy coalitions'. The article sets out a model of the latter, contrasting it with Sabatier's model of the advocacy coalition which appears unable entirely to encapsulate the entrepreneurial dynamics of EU decision-making.

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