Quality over quantity? Technical information, interest advocacy and school closures in Sweden

Abstract

Information that relates to the consequences of political decisions is often regarded as the main currency for interest group influence. However, this argument has mainly been applied and empirically tested in the case of highly professional and permanent groups. It is therefore unclear to what extent the provision of information plays a role in the political impact of informal and loosely organized groups, such as social movements. This article demonstrates how social movements use information to influence elected officials on the local level in Sweden. A quantitative study of 339 proposed school closures during the 2002-2010 period is presented. School issues have been one of the most important drivers of contentious politics in Sweden. The results reveal that technical information provided by movements, such as information on unintended economic consequences and alternative proposals that could save costs, decreases the probability that proposals will result in school closures. Protest actions with a large number of participants, however, have no statistically significant effects on closures. The study suggests that less organizational resources may be required to influence elected officials through technical expertise than would be expected in light of previous research.Providing policymakers with information that relates to the consequences of their decisions is often asserted to be one of the most important means by which interest groups influence the decision-making process. Existing empirical studies on lobbying suggest that interest groups that provide this type of information are more likely to have access to elected officials (Bouwen, 2004) and influence the decision-making process (Burstein and Hirsh, 2007). However, it is currently unclear to what extent this argument is generalizable to informal groups, such as social movements. Most existing empirical studies focus on highly professional and permanent groups on the

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