Professionalisation of NGOs: Friend or Foe of Grassroots Representation?

This paper investigates the strategy employed by the European Commission (Commission) aiming to enhance its legitimacy through forging closer relations with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in order to ''bridge the gap'' with civil society. This strategy is predicated on the assumption that NGOs are representative organizations where the leadership reflects the interests of the rank-and-file. Existing literature assumes that there is a trade-off between recognition and representativeness. In particular, formalized relationships lead to NGO professionalization: NGO representation structures at EU-level become centralized and led by full-time experts who have a technical rather than grassroots approach to their work. Groups increasingly are cause groups with passive supporters rather than members incorporated in internal organisational decision-making. The conclusion drawn in the literature is that professionalization takes place at the cost of representativeness, which in turn confounds the intentions of the Commission to bridge the gap with civil society in order to increase its legitimacy. This paper problematises this supposition. Based on the qualitative analysis of internal communication and organisational structures of EU environmental NGOs it is argued that professionalization may well mean an adaptation of internal communication and networking structures enabling both professional lobbying strategies as well as member’s interest representation. Contemporary communication technologies, particularly the internet, are less capital, labour and time-intensive. They have significant outreach and participative potential, which can be effective top-down, bottom-up and across constituents and networks. Websites, social networks and blogs can provide means of participation and opinion formation beyond the formal member- or supporter-ship. Moreover, professionalization may create members'' and supporters'' trust in the leadership which enhances ''social representativeness''. The conclusion is that NGO professionalization of internal organisational communication may indeed create new means of representing constituents, which in turn is positive for the practice and legitimacy of participatory governance in the EU.