Opening the black box: The professionalization of interest groups in the European Union

Klüver, Heike; Saurugger, Sabine

doi:10.1057/iga.2013.2

Cited by 65 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…These groups also hire external consultants (Andreassen et al 2014) and have internal organizational training programmes for their staff (Ossewaarde et al 2008;Hwang and Powell 2009). This level of professionalization means that they adopt a technocratic and scientific approach to organizational recruitment, maintenance and influencing policy outcomes (see Jordan and Maloney 2007;Klüver and Saurugger 2013;McCarthy andZald [1987] 1994;Saurugger 2012). Accordingly, in our empirical analyses (below) we measure the level of professionalization via an additive index of five professionalization indicators including the number of fulltime staff (FTE) and several indicators of competence/knowledge-collaboration with external experts, in-house training (policy areas and lobbying) and commissioning or conducting research.…”

Section: Professionalization and Eu Fundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the EU accession process and EU funding on the professionalization of national interest groups: the Slovenian case

2018

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This article investigates the extent to which European Union (EU) accession and EU funding contribute to the professionalization of interest groups in Slovenia. Have EU accession and funding had a more profound impact on the professionalization of interest groups in Slovenia than the shift from socialism to capitalism? Our novel empirical evidence is drawn from two surveys of interest groups in Slovenia-the first in 1996 eight years prior to Slovenia's membership of the EU (in 2004) and the second in 2012 eight years after its accession. Our findings show that EU accession and funding accentuate the professionalization of interest groups. However, these processes are intertwined with the partitocratic role of national political parties and parties mediate the shape and structure of interest group professionalization via their decisions on the allocation of EU funding to groups.

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Section: Professionalization and Eu Fundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the EU accession process and EU funding on the professionalization of national interest groups: the Slovenian case

2018

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“…An evident indicator involves the amount of staff employed by an organization. Human resources are critical to effective advocacy, as they enable organizations to survive, monitor political processes, develop specialized expertise, network and set up campaigns to attract new supporters and members (Klüver, 2012;Klüver and Saurugger, 2013). In this article, we use the amount of full-time equivalent employed as a proxy for an organization's capacity in terms of financial resources, which we consider indicative of a group's potential to provide policy expertise (H6).…”

Section: Explaining Who's In and Who's Out: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who’s in and who’s out?: Explaining access to policymakers in Belgium

Fraussen

Beyers

2015

Acta Polit

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In most political systems, the community of policy insiders represents a small subset of the total interest group population. Therefore, one key question is which factors explain why some mobilized interests become insiders and others remain outsiders. By contrasting a bottom-up registration of interest groups with a top-down census of all groups that enjoy access to policymakers, we present a unique approach to distinguish insiders from outsiders. This approach allows us to systematically analyze which factorssuch as resources, constituency, scale of organization and policy portfolio -predict who becomes a policy insider. Our analysis focuses on interest group politics in Belgium, and shows that next to resources, the size of the membership, the scale of organization and a group's policy portfolio are strong predictors of the likelihood to gain access.

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“…He sets out a number of requirements including framing, argumentation and strategy. Although Beyers () does not use the term, Klüver and Saurugger (: 186) quote this requirement as acting professionally. But what, precisely, is acting professionally?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But what, precisely, is acting professionally? Klüver and Saurugger (: 187) write about the need for interest groups to be professional but then define it as ‘the hiring of professionals … including lawyers and economists’ rather than looking at the overall approach and behaviour of the organisation. Irrespective of what it is called, the real questions are what behaviour is required of business associations that hope to secure access and indeed to influence public policy and whether business associations have a sufficient understanding of what those requirements mean in practice?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Business associations in Kenya: the success factors

Irwin¹,

Githinji

2015

Journal of Public Affairs

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Governments create the political and economic environment in which their countries' businesses operate, usually described as the ‘enabling environment’ or ‘investment climate’. In response, business associations seek to influence public policy to make it easier for their members to “do business”. Scholars suggest that interest groups are able to form lasting relationships with governments based on a resource exchange mechanism. This paper suggests that, at least in developing countries, a more nuanced explanation is necessary. Business associations, in particular, need proactively to pursue a logic of ‘competence’ as well as a logic of ‘positive relationships’. This paper assesses the outcomes of advocacy projects undertaken by business associations in Kenya in the period 2008–2013, considers the degree to which the associations contributed to the decision to change policy and then analyses the factors perceived by business associations to have led to their success in influencing public policy. We find evidence to support the expectation that business associations must develop a wide range of competences whilst building relationships with multiple stakeholders. The findings will be relevant to practitioners as well as to researchers and donors. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Opening the black box: The professionalization of interest groups in the European Union

Cited by 65 publications

References 32 publications

The impact of the EU accession process and EU funding on the professionalization of national interest groups: the Slovenian case

The impact of the EU accession process and EU funding on the professionalization of national interest groups: the Slovenian case

Who’s in and who’s out?: Explaining access to policymakers in Belgium

Business associations in Kenya: the success factors

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