Civil Society Non-Involvement within the Input-, Output-Legitimacy Nexus: An Example from EU Industrial Research Funding Policy

This paper represents a small section on the topic of actor involvement within my PhD Thesis on the development of the European Union’s Public-Private Innovation partnerships. It examines the concepts of input- vs. output-legitimacy towards civic society, and society in a wider sense, within the EU’s policy making approach towards this form of European industrial research support. It argues that input legitimacy cannot arise from civil society involvement, when dealing with policy needs in highly technical industrial research funding policy, due to the nature of research as a knowledge-, rather than interest-driven exercise, scientific illiteracy of the general population and the resulting non-representation of public scientific interests in civil society organisations on the European policy making arena. The question about the legitimacy of this EU policy initiative then tentatively explores the potential legitimacy derived from possible policy outcomes along the EU narrative of competitiveness, employment and sustainability. It arrives to the conclusion that the employment dimension within this narrative is unlikely to be achieved through this policy alone and that the policy will likely only succeed in terms of competitiveness of European industry and in achieving the EUs environmental goals of sustainable industrial production.