The size and shape of the Italian interest system between the 1980s and the present day

Abstract

Within interest group research, scholars following the population ecology perspective mainly look at the demographic features of populations and systems under scrutiny: density and diversity represent the main dimensions investigated. Even though, in recent years, an impressive amount of literature on this topic has been produced, there has been neither systematic analysis of, nor empirical research into, the Italian interest system so far. This article aims to address this lacuna. Following a diachronic perspective, we count how many politically active groups have populated the Italian interest system with regard to two different periods: 1984–88 and 2010–14. From 1984 to 2014 the number of interest groups almost doubled and the density of the system greatly increased; diversity, however, has remained relatively more stable.

Explaining the density of post-communist interest group populations—resources, constituencies, and regime change

“…Until recently, the diversity and density of interest and lobby group populations were studied mostly on the sample of US states (e.g., Bevan 2013;Lowery 1995, 1996a;Lowery and Gray 1995;Minkoff et al 2014). However, lately, numerous studies were published on European Union (EU)-level populations (e.g., Berkhout et al 2015Berkhout et al , 2018Berkhout and Lowery 2011;Wonka et al 2010) and different aspects (diversity, access to policy-makers) of nationallevel interest group populations in Europe and elsewhere (Binderkrantz et al 2015;Fraussen and Halpin 2016;Fraussen et al 2015;Lizzi and Pritoni 2017).…”

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

“…Anyway, the rationale behind focussing on the Italian case is twofold. First, it is almost unknown in the literature: with a very few recent exceptions (Capano et al, 2014;Lizzi and Pritoni, 2017;Pritoni, 2017), scholars devoted little attention to interest group politics in Italy so far. However, simply adding the Italian case to the existing literature would not be a sufficient contribution.…”

“…3 However, in contrast to the United States and the EU, lobbying registers do not exist in Italy: there has never been any formal registration nor an official list of interest groups. At best, a (partial) list of interest groups with media access is now available thanks to the analysis recently developed by Lizzi and Pritoni (2017). Yet their population consists of 594 interest groups and does not appear to be complete.…”

“…This lack of empirical research is particularly problematic with respect to Italy: with a very few recent exceptions (Capano et al, 2014;Lizzi and Pritoni, 2017;Pritoni, 2017), Italian scholars have not paid sufficient attention to interest group politics and the Italian case is still absent from any comparative research. This paper aimed to address precisely this lacuna, both from a descriptiveascertaining how much Italian interest groups either coalesce with 'friends' or network with 'foes'as well as an explanatoryhypothesizing why Italian interest groups do what they do with respect to those lobbying decisionspoint of view.…”

Politics without bureaucrats? Western European NGO campaigns in the state and the market

“…Moreover, the inclusion of Italy also has added value, given the relative lack of studies examining its interest group or NGO population (see e.g. Lizzi and Pritoni, 2017).…”