Policy positions, power and interest group-party lobby routines

Abstract

Prior literature points to the importance of party power and ideology for interest group-party contacts in the legislative arena. But interest groups do not often have ideologiesthey are typically active in a small number of policy domains and there may be different parties that share more similar preferences across different policy areas. Therefore, we examine whether and how party power and proximity in policy preferences predict the existence of party-interest group 'lobby routines' in specific policy domains, using a novel survey of representative samples of interest groups in seven long-established democracies. We find that groups often form routines with different parties in different policy areas and that preference proximity on relevant policy dimensions is positively associated with having such area-specific lobby routines. However, the results also suggest that powerful parties are more likely allies and that the effect of policy proximity on routines is positively conditioned by power.

Introducing the party-interest group relationships in contemporary democracies datasets

“…Possible units of analysis are central party organizations, legislative groups, or interest groups. The party surveys can be combined to allow for study of the “party at large.” Moreover, all surveys open up for dyadic (e.g., party-group) and triadic (e.g., party-group-policy area) units of analysis (see Allern et al, 2021, 2021b, for applications). The datasets and/or supplementary material furthermore include ID variables or key information from the PPDB, ParlGov (Döring and Manow, 2018) and Chapel Hill expert surveys (CHES) (Polk et al, 2017) so that the data can easily be merged and combined.…”

“…See Allern et al, 2021, 2021b for relevant control variables and other more sophisticated approaches to utilizing the PAIRDEM datasets in combination with CHES data.…”

Staying connected: explaining parties’ enduring connections to civil society

“…1. Other studies approach the subject from the perspective of CSOs, examining why interest groups are interested in linking up with political parties (Allern et al 2021;Berkhout 2013;Rasmussen and Lindeboom 2013). 2.…”

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

“…Interest groups and political parties are two phenomena that used to be studied separately; however, the recent wave of studies attempted to shed more light on interactions between these two actors or study them together (Allern, 2010;Allern and Bale, 2012;Allern et al, 2021aAllern et al, , 2021bBerkhout et al, 2021;Beyers et al, 2015;Bolleyer and Correa, 2020;De Bruycker, 2016;Otjes and Rasmussen, 2017;Rasmussen and Lindeboom, 2013).…”