Interest Organizations across Economic Sectors: Explaining Interest Group Density in the European Union

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Joost Berkhout
  • Brendan Carroll
  • Caelesta Braun
  • Adam Chalmers
  • Tine Destrooper
  • David Lowery
  • Rasmussen, Anne
The number of interest organizations (density) varies across policy domains, political issues and economic sectors. This shapes the nature and outcomes of interest representation. In this contribution, we explain the density of interest organizations per economic sector in the European Union on the basis of political and economic institutional factors. Focusing on business interest representation, we show that economic institutions structure the ‘supply’ of interest organizations by affecting the number of potential constituents, the resources available for lobbying and the geographical level of collective action of businesses. In contrast, we do not find consistent evidence that political institutions produce ‘demand’ for interest organizations by making laws, developing public policy or spending money. This is in contrast to the extensive evidence that such factors affect lobbying practices. The European Union interest system is (partially) shaped by economic factors, relatively independent from public policy or institutions.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2
JournalJournal of European Public Policy
Volume22
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)462-480
Number of pages18
ISSN1350-1763
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Bibliographical note

Special Issue: Legislative lobbying in context: the policy and polity determinants of interest group politics in the European Union

ID: 128659969