'Europeanizing' civil society: NGOs as agents of political socialization

As a strategy for tackling the 'democratic deficit', attention is increasin gly shifting towards the 'Europeanization' of civil society, the latter bei ng traditionally viewed as a means both to limit state power and to promote infra-citizenry solidarity. However, this attempted change requires in tur n actors who are both able and willing to act as agents of political social ization in the context of EU policy-making. This article examines the empha sis placed by both EU actors and the current academic literature on NGOs as such agents. Drawing on an analysis of similar claims made in development policy, I isolate the main indicators of NGOS' ability to foster the Europe anization of civil society via political socialization and put forward seve n key tests of their ability to carry out this function in the EU context. These are then evaluated against the results of original empirical investig ations. I argue that NGOs are currently unsuited to the task of Europeanizi ng civil society thanks to their inability to promote the political sociali zation of their supporters. As a consequence that task requires EU-level in stitutional reform informed by iterated public dialogue, as well as change in the working practices of NGOs.