Christine Mahoney

Assistant Professor, Political Science

Director, Center for European Studies and European Union Center

Degree

Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, 2006

Specialties

Comparative politics, American politics, statistical methods

Personal Website

http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/chmahone/

Publications

Brussels vs. the Beltway: Advocacy in the United States and the European Union.  Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. (2008).                                    

“Converging Perspectives on Interest-Group Research in Europe and America.”  with Frank R. Baumgartner. West European Politics. Vol. 31(6): 1251-1271 (2008).

“The Two Faces of Framing: Individual-Level Framing and Collective Issue-Definition in the EU” with Frank R. Baumgartner. European Union Politics. Vol. 9(3):435-449 (2008).

“Networking vs. Allying: The Decision of Interest Groups to Join Coalitions in the US and the EU,” Journal of European Public Policy. Vol. 14(2):366-383 (2007).

“Lobbying Success in the United States and the European Union,” Journal of Public Policy.  Vol 27(2): 35-56 (2007).

“The Power of Institutions: State and Interest-Group Activity in the European Union,” European Union Politics. Volume 5 (4): 441–466 (2004). 

Courses

The Politics of the European Union

Quantitative Skills in International Relations (Masters Level)

Introduction to Quantitative Political Analysis (Doctoral Level) 

Research Interests

Civil Society (National, Transnational and International)

Social Movements

Advocacy & Lobbying 

Research Projects

My book project Brussels vs. the Beltway: Advocacy in the United States and the European Union investigates the determinants of lobbying decisions throughout the advocacy process.  Each chapter details how institutional, issue-specific and interest-group factors blend to determine decisions about lobbying positions, argumentation, inside lobbying tactics, outside lobbying strategies, and networking and coalitions activity.  In addition, factors at each of these three levels also determine policy outcomes and thus lobbying success.  Drawing on 149 in-depth interviews with civil society advocates in Washington D.C. and Brussels Belgium, active on a random sample of 47 political issues, this book presents the first large-scale quantitative study comparing lobbying in the US and the EU.

My second major project is investigation the mobilization of civil society among displaced populations.  When violent conflict results in massive forced migration, communities experience a complete breakdown in social order.  During displacement, either across borders or internally within a country, the displaced are faced with collective problems.  In certain situations the displaced have mobilized and organized to solve the problems they encounter, in other situations malaise sets in and collective action problems are not overcome. International, national, and local NGOs play an important role in understanding when the displaced mobilize and when they do not. This project lays out a theoretical structure explaining participation in collective action among the forcibly displaced and tests that theory through a multi-country, pan-regional study of displaced populations in 9 countries (Croatia, Thailand, Uganda, Colombia, Tanzania, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Azerbaijan).  My research considers the barriers to mobilization that the collective action literature has traditionally recognized as well as the hurdles that are unique to situations of forced displacement. The factors that influence civil society participation (either positively or negatively) can be grouped into four aspects of the displacement situation: the human security context; the legal context; the cultural context and the duration context. In addition, activity by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is a major determinant of collective action among the displaced and forms the fifth category of factors to be studied. 

The third major project is a collaborative study of Civil Society in Europe. Working with scholars at the University of Antwerp, University of Leiden, University of Aberdeen, University College London, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, University of Bremen, University of Salzburg, University of Grenoble, University of Newcastle, London School of Economics, University of Leuven, University of Aarhus, and the University of Gothenburg, we will be conducting studies of 100 European policy issues at the EU and member state levels in 6 member states (France, Germany, Belgium, UK, Sweden and the Netherlands).  The project involves five modules or thematic areas: Civil Society Group Populations; Civil Society Group Professionalization; Civil Society Group Strategies; Civil Society Group Framing; and Civil Society Group Influence. I am co-directing the module on Civil Society Group Framing with Daniel Naurin at the University of Gothenburg.

I am also affiliated with the Transnational-NGO project in the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, led by Peg Herman, Hans Peter Schmitz, Bruce Dayton and Derrick Cogburn. For more information see: http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/programs/TNGO/index.htm