Conflict and salience as drivers of corporate lobbying? An elite survey experiment

Abstract

This paper argues that a high degree of conflict and a low degree of salience on a policy issue drives corporations to lobby alone rather than via a business association. Previous research has addressed drivers at organizational, sector and structural level. This paper adds an issue perspective. These arguments are important as democracies thrive when business employs its power in a responsible manner. When corporations lobby alone, it can be a challenge to do so as they tend to overlook long-term interests of the broader business community and society. The arguments are tested for the first time in a corporatist context through an original survey experiment among corporate lobbyists in Germany and the Netherlands. The study finds support for the expectation on conflict, which is striking as it indicates that corporations prefer to lobby alone due to conflict even in contexts in which they are not incentivized to do so.

Online focus groups as a tool to study policy professionals

“…Political scientists have employed a set of diverse methods to study such political elites and their relationships within and between the organizations they represent or are active in. One can broadly distinguish between the following methods:(1) Those that rely on the coding and analysis of text and other publicly available data (e.g., Coen and Vannoni, 2020; LaPira and Thomas, 2017);(2) Those that rely on information requested from organizations and persons of interest, commonly through surveys of or interviews with organizational representatives (e.g., Beyers et al 2020; Harvey, 2011; Peabody et al, 1990; Heaney 2014; Leech, 2002);(3) Those that entail the observation of behaviors of elites during their professional activities by means of ethnography-type “shadowing” (e.g., Adler-Nissen and Eggeling 2022; Gravante and Poma 2022) or with field experiments (e.g., Grose et al, 2022); and(4) Those that (artificially) manipulate the situations elites must navigate, such as in survey experiments and audit studies (e.g., Aizenberg 2023; Kalla and Broockman 2016; Rasmussen and Reher 2023). …”

“…(4) Those that (artificially) manipulate the situations elites must navigate, such as in survey experiments and audit studies (e.g., Aizenberg 2023; Kalla and Broockman 2016; Rasmussen and Reher 2023).…”

Does policy context matter for citizen engagement in policymaking? Evidence from the European Commission's public consultation regime

“…Policymakers might be more likely to respond to public opinion (i.e. citizen preferences) on issues that are publicly salient (Aizenberg, 2022; De Bruycker, 2017). On these issues, there is more public scrutiny and accountability, and the literature shows that the advantage of interest groups’ resources on influence decreases (Stevens and De Bruycker, 2020).…”

“…Building on the work of Røed and Hansen (2018), I argue that an important goal of participation in EU consultations is the chance to influence the policymaking process. For citizens, this chance is likely to be higher for publicly salient issues, where policymakers are more inclined to respond to public opinion (Aizenberg, 2022; De Bruycker, 2017). Similarly, if the issue is impactful on citizens’ daily lives, the potential benefit of achieving their desired policy outcome is higher.…”

Fight or Flight: How access barriers and interest disruption affect the activities of interest organizations

“…2 Nevertheless, given the challenges involved in developing experimental designs to address key research questions in studies of interest groups, they are relatively rare in research on lobbying (exceptions are Aizenberg, 2023;Dür, 2019;Junk & Rasmussen, 2023;Kalla & Broockman, 2016;La Pira, 2008;Leeper, 2013;McEntire et al, 2015;Miller, 2022;Weber et al, 2012). It is especially rare that an experiment is employed to understand the behavior of interest organizations (but see Miller, 2022;Aizenberg, 2023), rather than legislators (e.g., Kalla & Broockman, 2016;La Pira, 2008) or the public (Dür, 2019;Hartman & Weber, 2009;Junk & Rasmussen, 2023;Leeper, 2013;McEntire et al, 2015). To our knowledge, our experiment is, in fact, the first survey experiment conducted across a large, cross-country sample of interest organizations.…”