The Associational Impact on Political Interest in Europe Jan W. van Deth Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) University of Mannheim jvdeth@uni-mannheim.de February 2008 Paper presented at the Fourth Meeting of Work Package 5-1 (Second Phase) “From National toward International Linkages? Civil Society and Multi-level Governance” CONNEX Network of Excellence on "Efficient and Democratic Governance in a Multi-level Europe“ Mannheim, March 6-8 2008