Interest group strategies and policy involvement: Does the context matter? Evidence from Southern Europe

Abstract

This study examines interest groups' involvement in the policymaking process by asking the following questions: Which political and non-political actors do interest groups target? What are the attitudinal and behavioral components of their strategy? We focus on new Southern European democracies that have been understudied in terms of interest group politics. Based on an original cross-national survey administered in Greece, Portugal and Spain, with responses from approximately 600 interest groups, this study argues that the attitudinal and behavioral dimensions are partially distinct components that need to be distinguished. The findings show that although groups mainly target governmental actors to defend their interests, parties are still considered important intermediaries to influence public policies. Moreover, organizational resources are the most significant explanatory factors that shape the relations between organized interests and policymakers, while cross-country differences do not seem to be of great relevance.

Interest Group Strategic Responses to Democratic Backsliding

“…All in all, the overlap of democratic backsliding and the pandemic also revealed both the importance of context (Lisi & Loureiro, 2022) and that of internal organisational strategies, both of which were also noted by the interviewees from large, complex IGs. Here, a difference between the democratic backsliding and the pandemic was seen as a difference between the change in governance (including the misuse of some policies declared to be anti-Covid-19 measures in favour of Janša's party programme of the second republic) and a health crisis measures to contain the spread of Covid-19.…”