Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T03:35:13.025Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ties that count: explaining interest group access to policymakers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2013

Jan Beyers  and
Caelesta Braun
Jan Beyers
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belguim; University Agder, Norway E-mail: jan.beyers@ua.ac.be
Caelesta Braun
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vu University Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Antwerp, Belguim E-mail: c.braun@vu.nl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The degree to which interest groups gain access to policymakers has often been explained by focusing on the exchange of resources in a dyadic relation between interest groups and policymakers. This article argues that the position an interest group occupies within a coalition and the relations it has outside its coalition substantially affect the likelihood of gaining access to policymakers. Our empirical focus is on the Dutch interest group system for which we examine how coalitions among groups and the network position of interest groups within and between such coalitions shape access. The analysis, based on data collected among 107 Dutch interest groups and 28 policymakers, leads to the conclusion that network positions count differently for elected and non-elected officials, and that network ties that bridge different coalitions add significant explanatory leverage to resource-based explanations of access.

Keywords

accessbureaucratsinterest groupsocial network analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , April 2014 , pp. 93 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, M. M. Coleman, W. D. (1992) Policy Networks, Policy Communities and the Problems of Governance. Governance 5(2): 154–180.Google Scholar
Austen-Smith, D. (1995) Campaign Contributions and Access. American Political Science Review 89(3): 566–581.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F. R. Leech, B. L. (2001) Interest Niches and Policy Bandwagons: Patterns of Interest Group Involvement in National Politics. Journal of Politics 63(4): 1191–1213.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F. R., Berry, J. M., Hojnacki, M., Kimball, D. C., Leech, B. L. (2009) Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Beyers, J. (2002) Gaining and Seeking Access. The European Adaptation of Domestic Interest Associations. European Journal of Political Research 41(5): 585–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beyers, J. (2004) Voice and Access. The Political Practices of European Interest Associations. European Union Politics 5(2): 211–240.Google Scholar
Beyers, J. Kerremans, B. (2004) Bureaucrats, Politicians, and Societal Interests. How is European Policy-Making Politicized? Comparative Political Studies 37(10): 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beyers, J. Kerremans, B. (2012) Domestic Embeddedness and the Dynamics of Multi-Level Venue-Shopping in Four EU Member-States. Governance 25(2): 262–290.Google Scholar
Binderkrantz, A. (2005) Interest Group Strategies: Navigating Between Privileged Access and Strategies of Pressure. Political Studies 53(4): 694–715.Google Scholar
Binderkrantz, A. (2008) Different Groups, Different Strategies: How Interest Groups Pursue Their Political Ambitions. Scandinavian Political Studies 31(2): 173–200.Google Scholar
Borgatti, S. P., Everett, M. G., Freeman, L. C. (1999) UCINET 5.0 for Windows: Software for Social Network Analysis. Natick: Analytic Technologies.Google Scholar
Bouwen, P. (2002) Corporate Lobbying in the European Union: The Logic of Access. Journal of European Public Policy 9(3): 365–390.Google Scholar
Braun, C. (2012) The Captive or the Broker? Explaining Public Agency-Interest Group Interactions. Governance 25(2): 291–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breiger, R. L., Boorman, S. A., Arabie, Ph. (1975) An Algorithm for Clustering Relational Data, with Application to Social Network Analysis and Comparison with Multidimensional Scaling. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 12: 328–383.Google Scholar
Burt, R. (1978) Cohesion Versus Structural Equivalence as a Basis for Network Subgroups. Sociological Methods and Research 7: 189–212.Google Scholar
Burt, R. S. (2004) Structural Holes and Good Ideas. American Journal of Sociology 110(2): 349–399.Google Scholar
Carpenter, D. P., Esterling, K. M., Lazer, D. M. J. (1998) The Strength of Weak Ties in Lobbying Networks. Evidence from Health-Care Politics in the United States. Journal of Theoretical Politics 10(4): 417–444.Google Scholar
Carpenter, D. P., Esterling, K. M. et al. (2003) The Strength of Strong Ties. A Model of Contact-Making in Policy Networks with Evidence from US Health Politics. Rationality and Society 15(4): 411–440.Google Scholar
Carpenter, D. P., Esterling, K. M. et al. (2004) Friends, Brokers, and Transitivity: Who Informs Whom in Washington Politics? The Journal of Politics 66(1): 224–246.Google Scholar
Crombez, C. (2002) Information, Lobbying and the Legislative Process in the European Union. European Union Politics 3(1): 7–32.Google Scholar
Dow, M. M., Burton, M. L., White, D. R., Reitz, K. P. (1984) Galton's Problem as Network Autocorrelation. American Ethnologist 11(4): 754–770.Google Scholar
Eising, R. (2004) Multilevel Governance and Business Interests in the European Union. Governance 17(2): 211–245.Google Scholar
Eising, R. (2007) The Access of Business Interests to EU Political Institutions: Towards Elite Pluralism? Journal of European Public Policy 14(2): 348–403.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. S. (1973) The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology 78(6): 1360–1380.Google Scholar
Gray, V. Lowery, D. (1998) To Lobby Alone or in a Flock. Foraging Behavior Among Organized Interests. American Politics Quarterly 26(1): 5–34.Google Scholar
Hall, R. L. Deardorff, A. V. (2006) Lobbying as a Legislative Subsidy. American Political Science Review 100(1): 69–84.Google Scholar
Hansen, J. M. (1991) Gaining Access. Congress and the Farm Lobby, 1919–1981. London: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Heaney, M. T. (2004) Issue Networks, Information, and Interest Group Alliances: The Case of Wisconsin Welfare Politics, 1993–1999. State Politics and Policy Quarterly 4(3): 237–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heaney, M. T. (2006) Brokering Health Policy: Coalitions, Parties, and Interest Group Influence. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 31(5): 887–994.Google Scholar
Heinz, J. P., Laumann, E. O., Nelson, R. L., Salisbury, R. H. (1993) The Hollow Core. Private Interests in National Policy Making. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Henning, C. H. C. A. (2009) Networks of Power in the CAP System of the EU-15 and EU-27. Journal of Public Policy 29(2): 153–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hojnacki, M. (1997) Interest Groups’ Decisions to Join Alliances or Work Alone. American Journal of Political Science 41(1): 61–87.Google Scholar
Hula, K. W. (1999) Lobbying Together. Interest Group Coalitions in Legislative Politics. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, B. D. Baumgartner, F. R. (2005) The Politics of Attention. How Government Prioritizes Problems. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Kollman, K. (1998) Outside Lobbying. Public Opinion and Interest Group Strategies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kriesi, H., Tresch, A., Jochum, M. (2007) Going Public in the European Union. Action Repertoires of Western European Collective Political Actors. Comparative Political Studies 40(1): 48–73.Google Scholar
Kriesi, H., Adam, S., Jochum, M. (2006) Comparative Analysis of Policy Networks in Europe. Journal of European Public Policy 13(3): 341–361.Google Scholar
Laumann, E. O. Knoke, D. (1987) The Organizational State. Social Choice in National Policy Domains. Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Leenders, R. T. A. J. (2002) Modeling Social Influence Through Network Autocorrelation: Constructing the Weight Matrix. Social Networks 24(1): 21–46.Google Scholar
Leifeld, P. Schneider, V. (2012) Information Exchange in Policy Networks. American Journal of Political Science 56(3): 731–744.Google Scholar
Long, S. J. (1997) Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Mahoney, C. (2007) Networking vs. Allying: The Decision of Interest Groups to Join Coalitions in the US and the EU. Journal of European Public Policy 14(2): 366–383.Google Scholar
Maloney, W. A., Jordan, G., McLaughlin, A. M. (1994) Interest Groups and Public Policy: The Insider/Outsider Model Revisited. Journal of Public Policy 14(1): 17–38.Google Scholar
Mizruchi, M. S. Neuman, E. J. (2008) The Effect of Density on the Level of Bias in the Network Autocorrelation Model. Social Networks 30: 190–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Malley, A. J. Marsden, P. V. (2008) The Analysis of Social Networks. Health Services and Outcomes Research Methdology 8(4): 222–269.Google Scholar
Pappi, F. U. Henning, C. H. C. A. (1998) Policy Networks: More Than a Metaphor. Journal of Theoretical Politics 10(4): 553–575.Google Scholar
Pappi, F. U. Henning, C. H. C. A. (1999) The Organization of Influence on the EC's Common Agricultural Policy: A Network Approach. European Journal of Political Research 36(2): 257–281.Google Scholar
Phillips, S. D. (1991) Meaning and Structure in Social Movements: Mapping the Network of National Canadian Women's Organizations. Canadian Journal of Political Science 24(4): 755–782.Google Scholar
Poppelaars, C. (2009a) Resource Exchange in Urban Governance: On the Means that Matter. Urban Affairs Review 43(1): 3–27.Google Scholar
Poppelaars, C. (2009b) Steering a Course Between Friends and Foes. Why Bureaucrats Interact with Interest Groups. Delft: Eburon.Google Scholar
Poppelaars, C. Scholten, P. (2008) Two Worlds Apart: The Divergence of National and Local Immigrant Integration Policies in the Netherlands. Administration and Society 40(4): 335–357.Google Scholar
Rhodes, R. A. W. Marsh, D. (1992) New Directions in the Study of Policy Networks. European Journal of Political Research 21(1–2): 161–205.Google Scholar
Sabatier, P. A. (1988) An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein. Policy Sciences 2–3(21): 129–168.Google Scholar
Scharpf, F. W. (1997) Games Real Actors Play. Actor-Centered Institutionalism in Policy Research. Oxford: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Sloof, R. (1998) Game-Theoretic Models of the Political Influence of Interest Groups. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Wasserman, S. Faust, K. (1998) Social Network Analysis. Methods and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zafonte, M. Sabatier, P. (1998) Shared Beliefs and Imposed Interdependencies as Determinants of Ally Networks in Overlapping Subsystems. Journal of Theoretical Politics 10(4): 473–505.Google Scholar