Evaluating the Breadth of Policy Engagement by Organized Interests

Abstract

This article probes the variation in the breadth of policy engagement among organized interests. The literature, heavily shaped by large‐n US studies of Washington and its lobbying system, suggests many reasons for organized interests to focus policy engagement relatively narrowly. This claim of policy specialization has been long repeated in the British public policy literature. The aim of this article is to empirically test the extent to which expectations of narrowed engagement hold in a UK context. This article uses a new Scottish dataset that tracks actual engagement by any organized interest on executive policy consultations over a 25‐year period. It tracks over 90,000 ‘mobilization events' by over 18,000 organizations in 1,690 distinct consultation issues across the entire Scottish policy system. In analysing these data, we concern ourselves with establishing: (1) the extent of generalized engagement; (2) the type of organized interests that are more or less general in their engagement; and (3) the extent to which a specialized style of policy engagement is on the increase over time. In the process, we develop measures that are appropriate for assessing breadth of engagement using issue‐based policy data.

Who you know in the PMO: Lobbying the Prime Minister's Office in Canada

“…One group of studies reaffirms long‐standing theories on the political dominance of business and concentrated interests (Olson ; Wilson ; Schlozman and Tierney ; Baumgartner and Leech ; Beyers , ; Bouwen , ; Yackee and Yackee ; McKay ; Boehmke, Gailmard and Patty ; Binderkrantz, Christansen and Perdersen ; Schlozman, Verba, and Brady ). Political scientists have also highlighted the effect of sector‐specific dynamics, such as specialization into “interest niches” (Browne ; Gray and Lowery ; Halpin and Binderkrantz ; Baumgartner and Leech ; Halpin and Thomas ). Finally, innovative studies have shown how financial and resource constraints affect lobbying strategies and discuss the consequent impact on the political success of organized interests (Beyers ; De Figueiredo).…”

Interest group survival: Explaining sources of mortality anxiety

“…97-101) use HHI scores to examine the diversity of the lobbying populations of US states. Following Halpin and Thomas (2012), we also measured this variable according to entropy scores. However, we achieved the same finding, regardless of measure.…”

Diversity in the News? A Study of Interest Groups in the Media in the UK, Spain and Denmark

“…Most interest groups tend to concentrate their lobbying work within a very small number of policy areas (Halpin and Binderkrantz 2011;Halpin and Thomas 2012), and their appearance in the news is therefore highly contingent on the set of stories reported on (Boydstun 2013, Baumgartner et al 2008. In stories about labor market politics, major trade unions and business groups are among the most relevant sources to include, while reporters drafting stories related to health issues may choose to hear from groups representing doctors, patients or representatives of public authorities responsible for the health system.…”

“…This pattern is also evident in different levels of Shannon's H (normalized) across the three countries: for UK 0.84, Spain 0.72 and Denmark 0.80. This measure captures the diversity in attention across all groups appearing in the media and the numbers indicate that the diversity in media appearances is highest in the UK and lowest in Spain (Boydstun, Bevan & Thomas III, 2014;Halpin and Thomas III 2012).…”