Source over Quantity? The Effect of Civil Society Funding on Access to the EU Commission
研究分析了公共、私人和会员资金如何影响民间社会组织接触欧盟委员会的机会，发现私人资助的组织更易获得接触，尽管其合法性受到质疑。
Abstract The European Commission builds relationships with civil society organisations (CSOs) through policy‐relevant meetings and funding. Through these relationships, the Commission seeks to obtain expertise, efficient input and legitimacy for its policy initiatives. Despite this, these relationships have become more contested in recent political debates. Studies on funding and access have shown that funding sources – especially public – entail benefits but also dependencies for CSOs and affect access to political institutions. This study analyses how public, private and membership funding sources affect access to the European Commission, thus going beyond the focus on public funding alone. It develops resource exchange theory further through a framework which structurally connects different funding sources with expertise, efficiency and legitimacy. A sample of CSOs from the Transparency register is analysed through regressions. The findings show that CSOs funded by private bodies are more likely to obtain Commission access despite negative associations with legitimacy. The study incentivises consideration of the role of private body funding in EU policy.