Interest Group Activity Research Articles

Whom do European corporations lobby? The domestic institutional determinants of interest group activity in the European Union

The complicated and multi-layered policymaking process in the European Union presents private interests, such as business firms, with an interesting strategic choice of whom and how to lobby. As the costs of lobbying at the domestic level increase, firms are expected to, instead, devote their resources to lobbying at the European level. Specifically, this article examines how domestic access points and domestic partisanship affect the costs and benefits of lobbying at the domestic versus European level. Using data on firm-level decisions to lobby the EU, this research finds that in countries where is it more costly (or less beneficial) to lobby domestically, firms are more likely to lobby at the EU level.

The political roots of domestic environmental sabotage

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we demonstrate that when environmentalist niche parties compete in a given constituency over a number of elections, but continually fail to win seats, then environmental sabotage becomes more frequent in that constituency. When mainstream tactics fail, radical tactics are used more frequently. Using a new data-set on the success rates of all Green Party candidates in US states, we show that environmental sabotage occurs more often when Green Party candidates fail to win even minor offices. This is true even when we control for other political expressions of environmentalism, such as interest group activity, and when we define ‘success’ through votes not seats. We discuss the implications of this for environmental politics, for social movements and democracy, and for political violence in the US.

Defending the status quo across venues and coalitions: evidence from California interest groups

AbstractThis study investigates the conditions under which pro-status quo groups increase their advocacy success during an entire policymaking process. It scrutinises whether pro-status quo defenders who are involved in multiple institutional venues and who join many coalitions of interest groups are able to achieve their policy preferences. A case study focussing on the regulation of stem cell research in California traces the policymaking process and the related advocacy activities of interest groups in legislative, administrative, judicial and direct democratic venues. The empirical results, which are based on a formal social network analysis, reveal that very few groups are multivenue players and members of several coalitions. In addition, occupying a central network position is insufficient for the pro-status quo groups to improve their advocacy success.

Pengaruh Pengungkapan Tanggung Jawab Sosial Perusahaan Terhadap Kinerja Perusahaan (Studi Empiris pada Perusahaan Manufaktur yang tercatat di Bursa Efek Indonesia pada Tahun 2006 sampai dengan 2008)

This research was aimed to examine the influence of corporate social responsibility disclosure to company performance. Corporate social responsibility disclosure needs to be done as a form of communicating the social and environmental impacts of the economic activity of the organization's special interest group, to society as a whole. The sample used was 10 Manufacturing Companies listed on BEI that done CSR disclosure in their annual reports for three years (Year 2006 to 2008). This study concluded that: (I) Testing simultaneously found a significant influence on the disclosure of corporate social responsibility to the ROA, ROE, but had no effect on CAR. (2) The influence of corporate social responsibility disclosure to the CAR through ROE as a intervening variable, but had no effect on ROA as intervening variables.

Organizational resilience: Sustained institutional effectiveness among smaller, private, non-profit US higher education institutions experiencing organizational decline.

Recent changes in the United States (US) economy have radically disrupted revenue generation among many institutions within higher education within the US. Chief among these disruptions has been fallout associated with the financial crisis of 2008-2009, which triggered a change in the US higher education environment from a period of relative munificence to a prolonged period of scarcity. The hardest hit by this disruption have been smaller, less wealthy institutions which tend to lack the necessary reserves to financially weather the economic storm. Interestingly, a review of institutional effectiveness among these institutions revealed that while many are struggling, some institutions have found ways to not only successfully cope with the impact of declining revenue, but have been able to capitalize on the disruption and thrive. Organizational response is an important factor in successfully coping with conditions of organizational decline. The study examined the impacts of organizational response on institutional effectiveness among higher education institutions experiencing organizational decline. The study's research question asked why some US higher educational institutions are more resilient at coping with organizational decline than other institutions operating within the same segment of the higher education sector. More specifically, what role does organizational resilience have in helping smaller, private non-profit institutions cope and remain effective during organizational decline? A total of 141 US smaller, private non-profit higher educational institutions participated in the study; specifically, the study included responses from participant institutions' key administrators. 60-item survey evaluated administrator responses corresponding to organizational response and institutional effectiveness. Factor analysis was used to specify the underlying structures of rigidity response, resilience response, and institutional effectiveness. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the direct and interaction effects between organizational decline, organizational rigidity response, organizational resilience response, and institutional effectiveness, controlling for age of institution and level of endowment. The study validated previous threat-rigidity response findings that organizational decline alone does not adversely impact institutional effectiveness. The direct effect of Goal-Directed Solution Seeking and Role Dependency organizational resilience factors had a positive, significant correlation with the Student Personal Development institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Goal-Directed Solution Seeking organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Professional Development and Quality of Faculty institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Avoidance during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Faculty and Administrator Employment Satisfaction institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Diminished Innovation, Morale, and Leader Credibility rigidity response factor and Avoidance organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Professional Development and Quality of Faculty institutional effectiveness factor. Lastly, the interactive effect of Increased Scapegoating of Leaders, Interest group Activities, and Conflict rigidity response factor and Avoidance organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Faculty and Administrator Employment Satisfaction institutional effectiveness factor. Factors of organizational resilience were found to have a positive effect among smaller, private non-profit higher educational institutions associated with this study toward sustaining institutional effectiveness during organizational decline. Specifically, the organizational resilience factors of Goal-Directed Solution Seeking (i.e., mission-driven solutions) and Avoidance (i.e., skepticism toward new ideas) play a significant, collaborative role among smaller, private non-profit higher educational institutions when it comes to sustaining institutional effectiveness during organizational decline.

Organized interests and administrative rulemaking: the state of Wisconsin's lobbyists and coalitions

This study examines interest groups undertaking lobbying activity focused on administrative rulemaking. The analysis utilizes a dataset composed of observations made during the 2009–2010 Wisconsin Legislative Session, including the entire population of groups lobbying during this time period. This research examines the participants, efforts, and coalitions utilized when groups engaged in lobbying activity related to rulemaking. Although scholars have examined interest group activity focused on rulemaking at the federal level, little work has focused on this behavior in the states. This study aims to further the understanding of this activity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Interest Groups at Transnational Negotiation Conferences: Goals, Strategies, Interactions, and Influence

Interest groups partake in transnational negotiation conferences en masse. This is surprising given that the chances for influencing policymaking at these venues appear to be slim while the costs of participation are high. This amounts to an interesting question: why do so many interest groups attend transnational conferences? This article aims to answer this question by offering the first systematic study of the activities of interest groups at transnational conferences. It analyzes the goals, strategies, interactions, and influence of various types of interest groups at two transnational conferences; namely, the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference (2011) and the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2012). The data was collected through 349 interviews with interest group representatives and 129 interviews with government delegates who participated in these conferences.

Interest Groups in the German Bundestag: Exploring the Issue Linkage between Citizens and Interest Groups

Do interest groups adjust their activity in response to public opinion? While previous studies have primarily focused on the link between voters, political parties and governments, interest groups have largely been ignored. This article therefore examines how public opinion affects interest group activity. It is argued that interest group activity is a bottom–up process in which interest groups respond to the issue priorities of citizens. Bringing together panel data on citizen concerns with longitudinal data on interest group issue attention, this article examines the issue linkage between citizens and interest groups in Germany from 1984 until 2010 in two different policy domains. Based on a time-series cross-section analysis, it is shown that issue attention of citizens precedes the registration of interest groups in the Bundestag indicating that interest groups play an important role in issue evolution and political representation.

Interest Groups, Political Communication, and Jeffrey Alexander’s Sociology of Power

This essay argues that Jeffrey Alexander’s magnum opus, The Civil Sphere, presents a valuable but curiously narrow account of how political power works in American society, especially the power of interest groups. Alexander neglects the extensive literature on the “faces of power” in political science and the classic, critical literature on “source reporting” in journalism studies, both of which offer analyses of interest-group activity and discourse that are more compelling than Alexander’s analysis. Using the example of religious interest-group politics, the essay suggests that the language a group employs is not so much a marker of membership in a “civil sphere,” as it is a strategic discourse of ordinary politics. The essay concludes by suggesting that Alexander’s civil sphere may be simply a particular vocabulary of politics rather than a separate and independent social realm.

Legislative lobbying in context: towards a conceptual framework of interest group lobbying in the European Union

ABSTRACTWe outline a conceptual framework that identifies and characterizes the contextual nature of interest group politics in the European Union (EU) to better understand variation in interest group mobilization, lobbying strategies and interest group influence. We focus on two sets of contextual factors that affect EU interest group lobbying. First, we argue that interest group activities are shaped by several policy-related factors, namely the complexity, the policy type, the status quo, the salience and the degree of conflict characterizing legislative proposals and the associated issues. Second, we posit that lobbying in the EU is affected by institutional factors that vary within the EU political system, such as the institutional fragmentation within the European Commission and the European Parliament and across different national political systems depending on the patterns of interest intermediation or the vertical and horizontal distribution of powers. Finally, we theorize about the interrelationship between contextual features and interest group properties and summarize the findings of the collection.

LOBIZMAS UŽSIENIO ŠALYSE IR LIETUVOJE: TEISINIO REGULIAVIMO IR INSTITUCIONALIZACIJOS PROBLEMOS

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamas lobizmo teisinis reguliavimas ir institucionalizacija užsienio šalyse ir Lietuvoje. Teisėtas lobizmas vertinamas kaip skaidraus politinio proceso sąlyga ir reikšminga korupcijos prevencijos priemonė1. Remiantis užsienio šalių lobizmo teisinio reguliavimo patirtimi, bandoma atsakyti į klausimą, kodėl teisėto lobizmo institutas yra neefektyvus arba neveikia Lietuvoje. Pagrindinės tiriamos problemos – teisinio reguliavimo netobulumas, politinės sistemos ir sprendimų priėmimo proceso specifika, sociokultūrinio konteksto bruožai, – kaip veiksniai, apsunkinantys teisėto lobizmo institucionalizaciją. Apibendrinti tyrimo rezultatai leidžia teigti, kad lobizmo institucionalizacija chaotiško pliuralizmo, sektorinio korporatyvizmo ir mutuojančio klientelizmo sąlygomis yra sudėtingas uždavinys, o sociokultūrinių veiksnių visuma teisės normas paprasčiausiai „atmeta“.

Interest group activity and economic growth: some new evidence from the US states

Empirical studies of the claim that special interest group activity has harmful effects on growth have produced mixed results with limited supportive evidence. This article provides new evidence on the issue in the context of the US states (1975–2004), using the pooled mean group estimator which allows for more flexible assumptions in a dynamic panel data framework. The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship in which the activity is, in fact, harmful for long-term state growth but only after a certain threshold level of activity is reached. Also, the short-run growth effects, not considered by previous studies, were found to be significant.

Interest group dynamics in a weak and transitional state: the case of Bolivia

Bolivia's political development has been characterized by elitist control set in an environment of political instability and a weak decentralized state. Since the 1980s and Bolivia's transition to a limited form of democracy, this elitist control has been successfully challenged from the left and, since the early 2000s, particularly by the indigenous population. In fact, Bolivian contemporary politics and interest group activity have been shaped mainly by the rise in political power of the left and indigenous interests. This rise, given a weak state transitioning to limited democracy, has had several consequences for interest group activity that add increasing complexity to the group system. One consequence of Bolivia's course of political development is that, although it exhibits many common elements of interest group activity explained by existing group theories, aspects of its group development are not adequately accounted for by these theories. In addition, there are questions about whether the new configuration of interest groups promotes or undermines democracy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Power groups, interests and interest groups in consolidated and transitional democracies: comparing Uruguay and Costa Rica with Paraguay and Haiti

Drawing on a representative sample of four countries, this article compares two related aspects of interest group activity across Latin America. First, it identifies the elements that determine the level of interest group system development and types of group activity across the region; and second it provides insights into the relationship of the level of institutionalization of a group system to the extent of the consolidation of democracy. The representative sample is composed of Uruguay and Costa Rica in comparison with Paraguay and Haiti. These are four countries with small populations that cover the spectrum of levels of socioeconomic and political development across Latin America, from Uruguay, one of the most developed, to Haiti one of the least developed. The article argues that across a spectrum of group development in Latin America, advanced systems have more or less integrated characteristics, whereas less developed ones manifest a dual or bifurcated group activity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Power groups, interests and interest groups in Latin America: a new era or more of the same?

This final article draws on the 13 contributions to this special issue, regarding the broad range of perspectives and in‐depth analyses of interest group systems across Latin America, to assess the contemporary operation and academic study of the region's interest group activity. In doing so, the analysis draws on the questions, premises and framework set out in the first article of this volume. Although the development of group systems varies from country to country, extensive developments have occurred since the early 1980s in the institutionalization of interest group activity. Yet, major challenges need to be overcome to ensure a deep‐rooted acceptance of interest group pluralism. Moreover, as with all group systems, the challenges facing the region are very much shaped by long‐standing socioeconomic and political cultural characteristics. These include widespread economic inequality and the central socio‐political role of family that often translates into clientelism, elitism, and corruption in the public policy arena. In turn, these and other challenges facing the group system affect the consolidation of democracy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Interest groups in Brazil: a new era and its challenges

This article provides general and specific insights into Brazil's developing interest group system. In doing so, it presents a theoretical foundation for understanding this group activity, past and present. The general insights of the role of interest groups under limited political participation and authoritarian regimes down to the 1980s plus the period of democracy since then, provide background for the specific insights of the article. The specifics focus on three aspects of Brazil's contemporary interest group activity: (1) utilization of a neo‐institutional analytical approach for understanding the interest group environment; (2) an analysis of the types of lobbying activity that takes place in Brazil today, including a case study; and (3) an assessment of the level of development of the group system by placing it in a comparative perspective with both advanced liberal democracies and other Latin American countries. The findings show that Brazil is, indeed, taking on many of the characteristics of a developed interest group system; but its past, its political culture, its political economy, and, paradoxically, its new‐found status as an international power, work to present several challenges to its group system and thus to a full democratization of the country. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Неокорпоративізм як механізм взаємодії між державою та групами інтересів

У статті розглядається неокорпоративізм як механізм забезпечення стабільних та продуктивних взаємовідносин держави і суспільства. Ключову роль у системі цих взаємовідносин відіграють групи інтересів, які репрезентують головних акторів цього процесу – бізнес та громадянське суспільство. Діяльність таких груп інтересів, що шукають шляхи впливу на процес прийняття рішень і на переорієнтацію владних структур відповідно до інтересів своїх членів, є фактором повсякденного політичного життя України. Тому тема неокорпоративізму все більше привертає увагу вчених, постійно зростає кількість теоретичних і дослідницьких робіт присвячених розгляду досвіду неокорпоративізму на Заході і аналізу взаємодії груп інтересів і держави в умовах переходу до неодемократії. Автор робить висновок, що українській державі слід створити правову нішу для легітимного функціонування підприємницьких спілок та асоціацій, що зможуть легітимно впливати на політику державних органів і визначити, з одного боку, допустимий оптимум коридору економічної свободи, а з іншого - максимально вмонтувати механізми ринкового саморегулювання в структури реалізації функцій держави.

Supreme Court Outcomes in Criminal Justice Cases (1994-2012 Terms)

This study examines the role of status differential between the involved parties and amici curiae participation in explaining variation in U.S. Supreme Court criminal justice decisions that favor the government interest over the interest of the other party (1994-2012 terms). The study finds status differential between the involved parties to be a significant predictor of outcome. Repeat player effects were found for special interests that file in support of the government entity (U.S. Solicitor General and Criminal Justice Legal Foundation), but not for special interests who file for the other party (the American Civil Liberties Union and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers). The study found that greater levels of aggregate amici curiae participation (all interest group activity) in the direction of the other party significantly reduce the likelihood of a case outcome that favors the government. Implications are discussed.

Do Interest Groups Reward Politicians for Their Votes in the Legislature? Evidence from the Recent Financial Crisis

Interest groups lobby politicians in various ways to influence their policy decisions, especially, their voting decisions in the legislature. Most, if not all, of the studies on this issue examine pre-vote lobbying activities of interest groups that occur before politicians vote in the legislature. In this paper, however, I examine lobbying activities of interest groups that occur after politicians vote in the legislature. By using data on the amount of monetary contributions given by interest groups to the members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have served in the 109th (2005-06) through 111th (2009-10) Congress, I find evidence that voting in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) of 2008, one of the most significant pieces of legislation and possibly the biggest government bailout in U.S. economic history, has increased the amount of monetary contributions that politicians receive from the interest groups in the financial sector after the passage of the EESA. I also discuss two reasons for such post-vote lobbying and find empirical evidence for one of them.

Synthesis of Working Group and Interest Group Activity One Year into the Research Data Alliance

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) uses Working Groups and Interest Groups to carry out its work. Groups form when a concerned community develops around a topic for which there are well defined issues, common goals, and an opportunity to create a framework for timely action. One year in, RDA has 26 Working Groups and Interest Groups whose activities are focused on overcoming barriers to successful research data sharing, publishing, referencing and archiving, and on developing the infrastructure necessary to support those tasks.