Equivalent in effectiveness?

Abstract

This research analyses the effectiveness of equivalence frames within the European Union. It asks itself the following question: In how far are certain frames by interest groups more effective in influencing the European Commission in drafting legislative proposals? The analysis conducted in this research found that negative frames are more effective in influencing the European Commission in drafting legislative proposals. This confirms a bias towards negative frames. However, it was also found that business interest groups don’t make more use of negative frames than non-business interest groups. This finding doesn’t confirm a double bias in which specific interest groups make more use of more effective frames. In addition it was found that differences exist per case. This suggests that every case is unique and that not every frame is as effective in another case. Therefore it can be concluded that certain frames, more specifically negative frames, are more effective in influencing the European Commission in drafting legislative proposals but that differences exist per case and that the usage of frames is equally divided over business and non-business interest groups. The conclusions of this research thus raises questions about the argument of effectiveness of civil society participation systems while it didn’t show that the legitimacy of the system is severely undermined as interest groups equally use this bias.