Navigating between ‘friends’ and ‘foes’: the coalition building and networking of Italian interest groups

Abstract

This paper focuses on the reasons that Italian interest groups decide to lobby together with like-minded groups (‘friends’), or engage in networking activity with groups that have conflicting interests (‘foes’), in order to influence public policy. How often do Italian interest groups recur to these lobbying strategies? What favours the construction of a coalition of more or less different interest groups lobbying on a particular issue? What, on the contrary, influences the decision to lobby individually? In order to answer these questions, original data coming from a national survey conducted on 1277 Italian interest groups are provided. Empirical results are interesting: from a descriptive point of view, business groups are more likely to engage in joint lobbying than other group types, whereas the same holds true for unions with respect to networking with rival organizations. From an explanatory point of view, groups that perceive themselves to be threatened by rivals’ influence in policymaking, or by environmental challenges, are more likely to work in coalitions and to engage in networking: resources do not matter in ‘absolute’ and ‘objective’ terms, but in ‘relative’ and ‘subjective’ ones.

It Is All About Money! What Drives Interest Groups’ Relations with Political Parties in Central and Eastern Europe?

“…Cekik (2017) by analyzing post-Communist Balkan countries argues that the greater budget of the interest groups, the more likely they participate in political processes. Pritoni (2018) also shows that Italian interest groups who have bigger financial means, the higher access to institutions on the EU level. Klüver (2013) as well observes that organizations with large annual turnover have the ability to get in touch with policy makers, irrespectively of funds earmarked for lobbying activities.…”

New Kids on the Democracy Block: Europeanisation of Interest Groups in Central and Eastern Europe

“…National public policy actors can take an active stance in EU policymaking by engaging, interpreting, appropriating, or ignoring the processes involved with European integration (Woll & Jacquot, 2010, p. 113). Accordingly, we can note the recent growth in interest in the Europeanisation of interest groups as scholars principally consider the role of interest groups in EU policymaking, their participation in EU-level umbrella organisations, and the effects of EU funding on interest groups (e.g., Dür & Mateo, 2014;Johansson & Jacobsson, 2016;Kanol, 2016;Klüver, 2010;Maloney et al, 2018;Pritoni, 2017;Sanchez Salgado, 2014;Sanchez Salgado & Demidov, 2018).…”