Consumers on the March: Civic Activism and Political Representation in Europe, 1960s to 1990s (VIDI, funded by NWO) (2018-2024). Co-investigators: Koen van Zon and Alessandra Schimmel

From consumers boycotting hormone-raised beef to environmental activists protesting driftnet fishing: citizens have long been actively engaged in European policy-making and have made a difference. This runs counter to the prevailing view of European integration as a technocratic project of political elites.

This research programme advances the argument that the expansion of the global consumer economy since the 1970s, the rise of new public interest groups and new conceptions of participatory democracy have transformed European governance in important ways that have until now remained unexplored. The first paradigm shift, this programme postulates, is the transformation of the European Community (EC) from a project of common market and trade policy to one of consumer participation and protection. This change has allowed transnational NGOs, such as consumer groups, to enter the European political arena.

The second hypothesis is that this has substantially impacted the understanding of democratic legitimacy: individual consumers rather than economic interests and social classes became the new focus of European policy-makers; by including consumer organisations in the policy-making process, they sought to bolster their legitimacy. Against this backdrop the present research poses the following question: How has the involvement of consumer organisations changed conceptions and practices of public participation in European governance since the 1970s?

Through the prism of consumer politics, the project examines the representative claims of new and traditional interest groups and the extent to which they have changed the “rules of the game” of European policy-making. The primary focus of the project is the European Bureau of Consumer Unions (BEUC) and its interaction with national member organisations and their constituencies, other actors in the policy field of consumer politics and the global consumer movement. As such, it highlights the inextricable entanglement of regional, national, and international governance in the second half of the twentieth century.

Photo: IISH Amsterdam

The European Parliament and the Origins of Consumer Policy (2023-2024). Co-investigator: Koen van Zon

This project is part of a series of studies, commissioned by the European Parliamentary Research Service, investigating the rise of new policy areas in the European Economic Community in the 1970s and the agenda-setting power of the European Parliament. Focusing on the historical development of consumer policy, this study shows that the consumer protection we enjoy on the EU single market was the result of a political struggle, in which the European Parliament played a significant role. It recounts the story of E-numbers, of food safety scandals, and of pioneering women in the European Parliament.  It shows that the debate about consumer protection in the EC/EU was ultimately about who should have power on the internal market: producers or consumers. This debate revolved around a tension between innovation and precaution, and how to define these two - a debate that continues to this day.

A History of NGOs and the Environment (2015 -)

The twentieth century has seen the rise of numerous non-governmental organisations which have sought to put issues such as nature conservation and environmental pollution on the political agenda. These include environmental and nature conservation organisations but also lesser known environmental actors, such as river water companies and consumer organisations.  It is interested in the historical evolution of NGOs in terms of their agendas, organisational structures and political strategies. It offers opportunities for junior researchers to carry out short-term research projects on one particular organisation, policy field or issue. These projects have resulted in research reports for the organisations in question, MA theses, academic articles and papers. Examples include an interdisciplinary project on the Dutch 'nitrogen crisis', the early years of river water companies association RIWA-Rijn, a history of Stichting Natuur & Milieu and the engagement of Greenpeace International in Brussels and Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s.

Brave New Worlds: Internal Colonisation in Interwar Europe, 1918-1940 (VENI, funded by NWO) (2011-2014)

In this postdoctoral project, Liesbeth van de Grift studied discourses and practices of internal colonisation in interwar Europe from a transnational perspective. Internal colonisation was a widespread phenomenon in interwar Europe, where attempts to build new communities on semi- or unoccupied lands were buttressed by a strong belief in progress and in the ability of man to master nature. Everywhere, rural resettlement schemes were underpinned by quests for food security, social improvement, national grandeur, and the modernisation of agricultural production and rural societies. In her research, she has shown that practices of internal colonization exemplified the rise of the modern interventionist state and reflected the expansion of state responsibilities and the increased involvement of experts in government in the interwar period.

Liesbeth van de Grift has published about this research in several international journals, such as Contemporary European History and Agricultural History as well as in volumes, the most important being Governing the Rural in Interwar Europe (2017), a volume co-edited with Amalia Ribi Forclaz and published by Routledge. This book addresses interwar endeavors to reform and modernize rural societies and livelihoods.

Securing the Communist State: The Reconstruction of Coercive Institutions in the Soviet Zone of Germany and Romania, 1944-1948 (PhD research, 2005-2008)

From Berlin to Bucharest, from Warsaw to Sofia, Soviet tanks crossed national borders across East Central Europe at the end of the Second World War. The arrival of the Red Army marked an important turn in history. Within only a few years, the often unpopular communist parties developed into political organizations with mass followings. They managed to seize power, eliminate political opposition to their rule, and purge the state apparatus of undesirable personnel.

In her research, Liesbeth van de Grift provided a new understanding of the communist takeovers using recently disclosed material from the communist archives in Berlin and Bucharest. She revealed how these communist parties gained control over the security apparatus after 1945 in East Central Europe from a transitional justice perspective, focusing on purges and personnel policies. Her dissertation Securing the Communist State: The Reconstruction of Coercive Institutions in the Soviet Zone of Germany and Romania, 1944-48, which was published in the Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series, showed the dilemmas that communist parties were confronted with in carrying out a fundamental break with the past.