Lobbying makes (strange) bedfellows: Explaining the formation and composition of lobbying coalitions in EU legislative politics

Jan Beyers*, Iskander De Bruycker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This article analyzes the formation of lobbying coalitions in European Union legislative politics. Specifically, we investigate whether interest organizations establish coalitions and under which conditions business interests and non-business interests join a coalition. Our explanatory framework emphasizes three factors that drive coalition formation: the influence-seeking needs of interest groups, the need to ensure organizational maintenance, and policy-related contextual factors. To test our hypotheses, we analyze 72 policies initiated by the European Commission between 2008 and 2010 and 143 semi-structured interviews with representatives of European interest organizations. Our results demonstrate that non-governmental organizations that depend relatively less on membership support are strongly inclined to engage in coalitions. Moreover, the heterogeneous coalitions we identified-consisting of both business and non-business interests are usually situated in policy areas that enjoy considerable salience among the broader public and emerge on issues that receive substantial media visibility.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)959-984
Number of pages26
JournalPolitical Studies
Volume66
Issue number4
Early online dateOct 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • interest groups
  • coalitions
  • lobbying strategies
  • European Union
  • INTEREST GROUP STRATEGIES
  • PUBLIC-INTEREST
  • NEWS COVERAGE
  • DECISION
  • POLITICIZATION
  • INTERESTS
  • SALIENCE
  • CONTEXT
  • ACCESS

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