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Patterns of Conflict and Mobilization: Mapping Interest Group Activity in EU Legislative Policymaking
[journal article]
Abstract Contemporary studies on interest group politics have mainly used single interest organizations as their central objects of study. This has led to a rich body of knowledge on the motivations of interest group mobilization, strategy development and even policy access and influence. The focus on single... view more
Contemporary studies on interest group politics have mainly used single interest organizations as their central objects of study. This has led to a rich body of knowledge on the motivations of interest group mobilization, strategy development and even policy access and influence. The focus on single interest groups, however, has resulted in limited knowledge on aggregate patterns of interest groups’ activity. This article seeks to address this lacuna, by examining patterns of mobilization and conflict of interest groups’ activity in EU legislative policymaking. To do so, it adopts a unique policy-centred research design and an empirical assessment of policy mobilization for a sample of 125 EU legislative proposals based on extensive media coding as well as structured elite interviews. We find that levels of policy mobilization vary substantively across different legislative proposals and that political conflict between interest groups is remarkably low. This suggests that interest group conflict and mobilization contribute little to EU politicization and that in cases where interest groups voice opposing positions, conflicts do not occur between business and non-business groups. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of interest groups in EU legislative policymaking.... view less
Keywords
EU; legislation; pressure group; mobilization; conflict of interest
Classification
European Politics
Free Keywords
interest groups; legislative policy-making; political conflict
Document language
English
Publication Year
2018
Page/Pages
p. 136-146
Journal
Politics and Governance, 6 (2018) 3
Issue topic
Multidisciplinary Studies in Politics and Governance
ISSN
2183-2463
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed