The Transnational Field of European Think Tanks: “Insiders” and “Outsiders” in the EU Policy-Making

This paper provides a new way of conceptualising European think tanks (TTs) as members of the transnational field. The paper approaches one of the main research puzzles related to the analysis of TTs: the issue of TT influence and the method for achieving it, which was not explicitly addressed in studies comparing TTs on both the European and national level. This study includes in its comparative analysis 24 European TTs working on EU policy, foreign affairs and domestic issues from Brussels, which function at the supranational level, as well as from France, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. It is based on data from website materials and semi-structured interviews with representatives of TTs, their networks and EU institutions. It builds upon Bourdieu’s field theory and its recent developments as a conceptual framework. While acknowledging a horizontal dimension of the European TT field, reflected in its intermediary position between adjacent social fields, the paper identifies mechanisms which account for its vertical differentiation from national fields, such as a concentrated location in Brussels, a separate category in the EU Transparency register, specific rankings, funding schemes, transparency mechanisms and networks existing at the European level. The paper argues that both these dimensions of the European TT field allow its members to accumulate and strategically use symbolic, political, academic, publicity, economic and network forms of capital built at the European level in order to enhance their legitimacy, policy-relevance, credibility and visibility in the Brussels policy-making scene and to gain political influence on the EU institutions. Drawing on the conceptual framework which I adopted, and on the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, I examined the relations of European TTs with European institutions (as players in the EU political field), as well as their internal and external environments (other adjacent social fields). As a result, it identifies specific factors determining their “insider” or “outsider” status in terms of access to EU policy-making which allowed to map the structural topography of the positions of European TTs in their own field from the most “dominant” to the most “dominated” according to the volume and structure of their capital most recognised in the EU political field. However, the thesis argued that the “insider” status of TTs does not always assume their real influence on the decision-making process, but rather their legitimising function. This paper joins current debates concerning the challenges of the EU’s “democratic deficit” and legitimacy, by showing the more privileged access of “insider” TTs to the EU institutions, but also the insufficiency of transparency measures which regulate their relations. This study represents therefore the blend of theoretical and empirical insights into the complex and multiscalar processes of TT operation in Europe and their relations with the EU institutions.