Lobby tekster Flashcards
Kluver
What defines an interest group
*Organization - formal organizational structure
*political interests, pursue the objective to influence political decision-making
*private status - they are not seeking public office and are not public institutions funded and subject to the state
What is lobbying
Kluver:
Lobbying is conceptualized as an exchange relationship in which the European institutions trade in influence for information, citizen support, and economic power.
lobbying is a collective process in which a plurality of interest groups simultaneously lobby decision‐makers. As a result, it is not the information supply, citizen support, and economic power of individual interest groups that make the di erence, but it is the aggregated amount of goods provided
Measures of influence:
- process‐tracing
- assessing attributed influence,
- degree of preference
attainment
The approach could use quantitative text analysis to estimate the policy positions of texts based on the relative frequencies of words they contain, allowing for the extraction of policy preferences of interest groups from their submissions to Commission consultations
Exchange theory
EU lobbying as an exchange relationship between interdependent actors. Interest groups demand in infuence on policy‐making from the European Commission, the Council, and the European Parliament. In exchange, the European institutions demand three goods from interest groups in order to pursue their individual objectives: policy‐relevant information, citizen support, and economic power.
Name Issue-specific factors that could impact lobby success
scope, level of conflict, complexity, salience (to who?),
media attention, focusing event, policy type:
regulatory or distributive …
Name how Institutional context might impact lobby
corporatism/pluralism, country variation (culture
versus institutions), democratic accountability, rules of
the policymaking process, nature of the media system,
What is a focus event
eventa crisis or disaster that comes along to call attention to [a] problem, a powerful symbol that catches on’. In his theory of multiple streams, focussing events can, there- fore, help open a window of opportunity for policy change
Potential with focus events
focussing event can, in this sense, trigger the sup- ply side of lobbying: interest groups become active and try to affect decision- making related to the event. At the same time, a (potential) focussing event can affect the demand side of lobbying when an event draws policymakers’ at- tention to a set of policy problems, so that they begin consulting relevant stake- holders in order to gather input for designing policy interventions.
Baroni, L., et. Al
Defining and clasifing interest groups
The article examines different approaches to defining and classifying interest groups and compares their performance in categorizing lobbying actors based on background characteristics. The authors use cluster analysis to create clusters of actors based on key background characteristics such as financial membership structure, level of mobilization, staff, and resources. They assess how well different classification schemes relate to these clusters and find that there is considerable variation in the organizational attributes of specific interest group types. The study also highlights that there is substantial variation within similar actor types in terms of background characteristics, casting doubt on long-held assumptions about interest group types. The findings suggest that concerns about unequal representation and undue influence should not be based on studies of group types only, as biased access or influence might also be a function of similarly resourced but substantively different types of groups
Problem in measuring group type
Background characteristics do align to a certain extent with
certain group types but there are also important differences in
the attributes of specific group types
❖ Somewhat closer link between groups attributes and group
types in narrower classification schemes
❖ Strong relationship between the INTERARENA & INTEREURO
schemes
❖ However, in all classification schemes: considerable variation
between the organisations with respect to background
attributes
Bias Baroni et. al
Biased access or influence is not merely a reflection of the lack of diversity of actors mobilizing on certain issues. Instead, it might also be a function of similarly resourced but substantively different types of groups.
Lowery et al.
Different views on bias
Joost Berkhout It would correct bias by being more responsive to changes in interests in society and preferences of constituents of existing groups
Frank R. Baumgartner’s an unbiased interest system would have no inefficiency in the translation of collective ability to define a ‘fair’ distribution of resources and how it might be measure
Jeffrey M. Berry
governments would be quickly overwhelmed if access were universal, highlighting the need to balance representation given the multi-dimensionality of interests.
Marie Hojnacki and Kay Schlozman: They were pessimistic about whether their necessary conditions for an unbiased interest system could be realized
Heike Klüver: An unbiased interest system is one in which all societal interests are represented by at least one organized group
Jeremy Richardson: An unbiased interest system would have equality of access and no one group or set of groups would have privileged access to centers of policy-making.
Beate Kohler-Koch:
An unbiased system of business interests in the European Union would be defined in terms of territorial inclusiveness, relevant delineation of the system, identification of relevant interests, and the appropriateness of a principal-agent model of representation
David Lowery: Noted that the criteria highlighted are now realized in approximation in advanced democracies
conditions that need to be obtained to achieve an unbiased interest groups system
- interests in societymust be articulated in a meaningful manner.
- is that groups must be mobilized to reflect these interests
3.interest organizations that are mobilized must actually represent the interests of those they purport to represent
- “fair” representation in the interest community via a mix of interest
- Jeffrey Berry noted that governments would be
quickly overwhelmed if access were universal.
6 the balance of resources should be proportional to the number of people in a potential constituency,
7 governments cannot respond to all policy demands.
Salisbury
discusses the exchange theory of interest groups, focusing on the relationship between group organizers and members, and the benefits exchanged for participation. The theory emphasizes that group organizers invest in benefits which they offer to potential members at a price, and for the group to survive, a balance must be maintained in the exchange
Name som types of benefits for being member of an organisation
Salisbury:
Material benefits refer to tangible rewards such as goods or services, or the means by which goods and services may be obtained.
Solidary benefits are intrinsic to the parties involved and are experienced directly and within the self. They include rewards such as socializing, congeniality, the sense of group membership and identification, status resulting from membership, fun, and conviviality
Expressive benefits are those where the action involved gives expression to the interests or values of a person or group rather than instrumentally pursuing interests or values. Examples include opposition to war on poverty and affirmation of free speech or civil rights, which are values many people wish to express and are willing to join groups that provide mechanisms for the public expression of those values
The homeostatic mechanism hypothesisplaces
IThis hypothesis predicts that once a set of social group bargaining encounters has been organized on all sides, there is an end to the group formation process and stability to the associational activities
The proliferation hypothesis
It emphasizes that associations are products of differentiated sets of values or interests and predicts the continuing development of new interest configurations and associations over time as a natural social response among conflicting specialized groups
TÆNK BÆREDYGTIGT LANDBRUG
Difference on how organisations maintains
Pluralism: Politcial consideratior are important (Work for policies consitens with member goals)
By product (Olson): Nonpolical consideration are important - goods.
Neo pluralism: Mix of polical and nonpolitical goals.
Moe (Neo pluralist) broader definition of incentives
- Material: Tangible rewards of goods or services or the
means, such as a job, by which the goods and services
may be obtained - Solidary: Intrinsic to the parties, experienced directly
within the self, derive from acts of associating and
include such rewards as socialising, congeniality, the
sense of group membership and identification, status
from membership, fun etc - Purposive: Consist of the realisation of goals that go
beyond personal benefit (e.g. ideological, moral or
religious principles). Not ordinarily divisible and can
therefore not be confined to parties seeking them, e.g.
good government, peace, civil rights, economic justice,
political equality
Collective action problem is not as severe as originally thought and can be solved…
Berhout (ecology approach)
The study concludes that the structure of economic sectors, including the number of enterprises, turnover, and the presence of umbrella groups, significantly affects the number of interest organizations in a given sector. It emphasizes the importance of considering supply-side explanations in addition to demand-side factors when studying interest group density
the population ecology view
Supply’ / ‘Area’: Bigger islands support more species
1. The space or breadth of the niche of an interest group:
* Number of potential constituents of an interest is positively related to the
number of organisations that form and survive
Berkhout et al. (2015) applied to sectors in the EU: “the ‘supply’ of interest organizations in a given sector depends on the number of potential constituents, their resources and the level of European market integration”.
‘Demand’‘/ ‘Energy’: Tropic islands support more species than arctic ones
- The political energy or resources needed to sustain the population:
* How active government is in the group’s field of interest.
* More organisations can form and survive when the prospects of policy change
are high.
Berkhout et al. (2015) applied to sectors in the EU: “the demand for interest organizations onthe part of EU institutions should be reflected in the stock of legislative output, the amount of government spending and the information needs of policy-makers”.
Stability’’ term of the model: Vulcanic islands may support fewer species
3. Absence of fluctuation in the organisation’s environment
* Prospects of change in an organisation’s environment.
Not included in Berkhout et al. (2015) but in some population ecology models, called the
ESA Models: Energy (Demand) – Stability – Area (Supply) (ESA) Model
Problem with afftecnees measure
Still, our measure of affectedness has its limitations. As already mentioned, as a subjective and relative measure capturing perceived affectedness, it is subject to potential over- or under estimation.
Concern with viral lobby case
a major concern in survey research is non-response bias, which occurs when non-respondents from a sample differ substantially from participants in the survey. This could be introduced by, for example, under-resourced organisations that do not have time to fill out our survey, inter- est groups that are rarely politically active and have low interest in answering a survey about lobbying, or organisations heavily affected by the pandemic that have other priorities than supporting our research.
How do the viral lobby text measure economy
We therefore opted to ask about staff size, now a com- mon practice in (European) lobbying research (e.g. De Bruycker 2019; Flöthe 2019; Junk 2020; Mahoney 2008) and assume that lobbying staff size is a fair proxy of overall lobbying resources employed by an organisatio
Are interest groups the same in a group type?
Viral lobby:
business associations and firms tend to exceed other group types in the category of organisations with medium and high lobbying resources. On the contrary, profession group and unions, as well as NGOs and citizen groups outnumber business groups and firms in the category of organisations with low resources. This distribution suggests that business associations and firms tend to be somewhat better-resourced compared to other interest groups.
Baroni:
that there is a link between interest group type and certain background characteristics such as resources. Business dominance is, for example, often explained with the assumption that such groups possess superior resources even if our study documents that there is high divergence in the background characteristics of business group
How can one explain the density (number) of interest groups
Population ecologists focus on supply (area), demand
(energy), and stability factors
Supply
o Størrelsesafhængighed: Jo flere ressourcer, desto flere organisationer.
Demand
o Hvor aktiv regeringen er i interessepopulationens interessefelt?
o Hvis der er høj politisk aktivitet på øen/politikområdet, vil der være flere interessegrupper.
Stabilitet’
o Hvis øen er placeret i et ustabilt landskab og miljøet er tuet, vil der være færre interessegrupper
Name the kind of logic that influence the actions of the interest groups
Berkhout
The logic of support involves the need for organizational survival,
the logic of influence pertains to the interaction of interest organizations with political institutions.
The logic of reputation addresses the role of interest organizations in public debate and the transformation of public claims into policy-relevant material.
Overall, the text suggests that the activities of interest organizations are shaped by the interrelated nature of these exchange relationships and the constraints that arise from them
Berkhout
Why do organizations do what they do?
interest organizations act as they do due to the need for organizational survival
It concludes that the activities of interest organizations are influenced by the logic of support, logic of influence, and the logic of reputation, which govern the exchange relationships with these three types of actors. The logic of support involves the need for organizational survival, while the logic of influence pertains to the interaction of interest organizations with political institutions. The logic of reputation addresses the role of interest organizations in public debate and the transformation of public claims into policy-relevant material. Overall, the text suggests that the activities of interest organizations are shaped by the interrelated nature of these exchange relationships and the constraints that arise from them
interest organizations are strategically strongly constrained through different demands made on the organization when engaging in relationships with supporters, policymakers, and journalists
too often the relationships inside and outside lobbying are treated as separate, while activities inside and outside are likely to be interdependent.
Issue mobilizing in focus event
Overall, we found strong support for Hypothesis 1, related to the level of af- fectedness, and Hypotheses 3, which expects the importance of resources for issue mobilisation. We also found support for Hypothesis 2, which suggests that business groups should have an advantage in issue mobilisation: Those NGOs and citizen groups that did mobilise, mobilised less quickly and less in- tensely than business groups. Regarding Hypothesis 4 on internal problems af- fecting an organisation’s procedures, however, we found no evidence that these hinder mobilisation
Normatively speaking, the interest group system should be biased in favour of heavily affected interests after a focussing event. This creates opportunities for citizens and other actors to meaningfully participate in politics.
It is not the case that diffuse interests (represented by NGOs and citizen groups) fail to mobilise after a focussing event. Yet, they are not as fast, and act less persistently compared to business groups. This still con- stitutes a form of group type bias, but the picture is less bleak than the pessimis- tic account presented by Olson.
Halpin, D. (2011) ‘Explaining Policy Bandwagons
Interestgroups follow each other and what is hot at the moment.
It emphasizes that the size and scope of an issue alone are not sufficient to explain the patterns of mobilization across policy issues. Instead, the study suggests that information cascades and similar mimic-based mechanisms are key to explaining engagement patterns. Additionally, the study highlights the role of cue taking triggered by the strategic monitoring of professional lobbyists and the influence of mass media, keystone groups, civil service, and campaign groups in shaping levels of engagement. Overall, the text concludes that understanding the dynamics of organized interest engagement in political systems requires considering issue-level differences and positive feedback mechanisms that drive policy bandwagons
What may cause band wagon effect?
(Cue givers)
Mass media: Attravt amateur (Mobilize individual members of the public)
Keystone groups: Can absorb or multiply organizations active.
Civil service: Civil servants may seek to promote mobilzation where they anticipate a set of actors would be interested but risk missing the signal to engage
Campaign groups: Can mobilize individuals who are activisit and sometimes the broader public. But can also dissuade