Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:13:38.978Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The contingent character of interest groups–political parties’ interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

Laura Chaqués-Bonafont Open the ORCID record for Laura Chaqués-Bonafont [Opens in a new window] ,
Camilo Cristancho ,
Luz Muñoz-Márquez  and
Leire Rincón
Laura Chaqués-Bonafont*
Affiliation:
Political Science Department, University of Barcelona and IBEI, Spain
Camilo Cristancho
Affiliation:
Political Science Department, University of Barcelona, Spain
Luz Muñoz-Márquez
Affiliation:
Political Science Department, University of Barcelona, Spain
Leire Rincón
Affiliation:
Political Science Department, University of Barcelona and IBEI, Spain
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: laurachaques@ub.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the conditions under which interest groups interact with political parties. Existing research finds that interest group–political party interactions in most western democracies have become more open and contingent over time. The close ideological and formal organisational ties that once characterised these relations have gradually been replaced by alternative, more pragmatic forms of cooperation. However, most of this research stresses the importance of the structural factors underpinning these links over time and across countries, but sheds little light on the factors driving short-term interest group–party interactions. Here, by drawing on survey data on Spanish interest groups obtained between December 2016 and May 2017, this article seeks to fill this gap by taking into account party status, issue salience and a group’s resources as explanatory variables. It shows that mainstream parties are the primary targets of interest groups, that groups dealing with salient issues are more likely to contact political parties and that the groups with most resources interact with a larger number of parties.

Keywords

interest groupsissue saliencemainstream partiespolitical partiesSpain
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 440 - 461
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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.)

Footnotes

†

This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CSO-2015-69878-P) Granttitle “La política de transparencia y derecho a la información en un contexto de governanza multinivel,” IP: Laura Chaqués Bonafont.

References

Adams, J, Clark, M, Ezrow, L and Glasgow, G (2006) Are Niche Parties Fundamentally Different from Mainstream Parties? The Causes and the Electoral Consequences of Western European Parties’ Policy Shifts, 1976–1998. American Journal of Political Science 50(3): 513–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allern, EH, Aylott, N and Christiansen, FJ (2007) Social Democrats and Trade Unions in Scandinavia: The Decline and Persistence of Institutional Relationships. European Journal of Political Research 46: 607–635. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2007.00706.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allern, EH and Bale, T (2012) Political Parties and Interest Groups: Disentangling Complex Relationships. Party Politics 18(1): 7–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austen-Smith, D (1993) Information and Influence: Lobbying for Agendas and Votes. American Journal of Political Science 37(3): 799–833.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barberà, O, Barrio, A and Rodríguez, J (2019) New parties’ linkages with external groups and civil society in Spain: A preliminary assessment. Mediterranean Politics 24(5): 646–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, FR and ChaquésBonafont, L (2015) All News is Bad News: Newspaper Coverage of Political Parties in Spain. Political Communication 32(2): 268–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, FR, Berry, JM, Hojnacki, M, Kimball, DC and Leech, BL (2009) Lobbying and Policy Change. Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, FR and Jones, BD (1993) Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Berry, J (1997) The Interest Group Society. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bertelli, A and John, P (2013) Public Policy Investment: Risk and Return in British Politics. British Journal of Political Science 43(4): 741–773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beyers, J and Braun, C (2016) Ties that Count. Explaining Interest Group Access to Policymakers. Journal of Public Policy 34(1): 93–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beyers, J, Eising, R and Maloney, W (2008) The Politics of Organized Interests in Europe: Lessons from EU Studies and Comparative Politics. West European Politics (Special Issue) 31(6): 1103–1128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binderkrantz, A, Christiansen, P and Pedersen, H (2012) Interest Group Access to the Bureaucracy, Parliament, and the Media. Governance 28(1): 95–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budge, I and Klingemann, HD (2001) Mapping Policy Preferences: Estimates for Parties, Electors, and Governments, 1945–1998 (Vol. 1). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chalmers, A (2011) Interests, Influence and Information: Comparing the Influence of Interest Groups in the European Union. Journal of European Integration 33(4): 471–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaqués-Bonafont, L and Muñoz, L (2016) Explaining Interest Group Access to Parliamentary Committees. West European Politics 39(6): 1276–1298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaqués-Bonafont, L, Palau, AM and Baumgartner, FR (2015) Agenda Dynamics in Spain, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culpepper, P (2011) Quiet Politics and Business Power: Corporate Control in Europe and Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
De Bruycker, I (2016) Power and Position: Which EU Party Groups do Lobbyists Prioritize and Why? Party Politics 22(4): 552–562. doi: 10.1177/1354068816642803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, C and Hobolt, S (2012) When Dimensions Collide: The Electoral Success of Issue Entrepreneurs. European Union Politics 13(2): 246–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dür, A (2008) Interest Groups in the European Union. How Powerful Are They? West European Politics 31(6): 1212–1230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dür, A and Mateo, G (2016) Insiders versus Outsiders: Interest Group Politics in Multilevel Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duverger, M (1954) Political Parties: Their Organization and Activity in the Modern State. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Fishman, R (1990) Working-Class Organization and the Return to Democracy in Spain. London: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraussen, B and Halpin, D (2018) Political Parties and Interest Organizations at the Crossroads: Perspectives on the Transformation of Political Organizations. Political Studies Review 16(1): 25–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green-Pedersen, C and Walgrave, S (eds.) (2014). Agenda Setting, Policies, and Political Systems. A Comparative Approach. Chicago: Chicago University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, R and Deardorff, A (2006) Lobbying as Legislative Subsidy. American Political Science Review 100(1): 69–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamman, K (2001) Spain: Changing Party-Group Relations in a New Democracy. In Thomas, CS (ed.) Political Parties and Interest Groups: Shaping Democratic Governance. Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Heaney, MT (2010). Linking Political Parties and Interest Groups. In Maisel, LS & Berry, JM (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 568–587.Google Scholar
Hobolt, S and Tilley, J (2016) Fleeing the Centre: the Rise of Challenger Parties in the Aftermath of the Euro Crisis. West European Politics 39(5): 971–991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, W and John, P (2009) The Dynamics of Political Attention: Public Opinion and the Queen’s Speech in the United Kingdom. American Journal of Political Science 53: 838–854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, G and Maloney, W (2007) Democracy and interest groups: Enhancing participation?. London: Palgrave Mcmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, R and Mair, P (1995) Changing Models of Party Organization and Party Democracy: The Emergence of the Cartel Party. Party Politics 1: 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klüver, H (2012) Informational Lobbying in the European Union: The Effect of Organizational Characteristics. West European Politics 35(3): 491–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohler-Koch, B, Kotzian, P and Quittkat, C (2017) The Multilevel Interest Representation of National Business Associations. West European Politics 40(5), 1046–1065.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krouwel, A (2006) Party Models. In Katz, RS and Crotty, W (eds.), Handbook of Party Politics. London: Sage Publications, 249–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lisi, M (2018) Party-Group Relations in New Southern European Democracies in the Crisis Era. Mediterranean Politics. doi: 10.1080/13629395.2018.1428147.Google Scholar
Mair, P (2006) Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy. New Left Review : 25–51.Google Scholar
Marshall, D (2015) Explaining Interest Group Interactions with Party Group Members. Journal of Common Mark Stud 53: 311–329. doi: 10.1111/jcms.12163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meguid, B (2005) Competition between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy in Niche Party Success. The American Political Science Review 99(3): 347–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molins, J, Muñoz, L and Medina, I (2016) Los grupos de interés en España. La influencia de los lobbies en la política española. Madrid: Tecnos.Google Scholar
Orriols, L and Cordero, G (2016) The Breakdown of the Spanish Two-Party System: The Upsurge of Podemos and Ciudadanos in the 2015 General Election. South European Society and Politics 21(4): 469–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otjes, S and Rasmussen, A (2017) The Collaboration Between Interest Groups and Political Parties in Multi-party Democracies: Party System Dynamics and the Effect of Power and Ideology. Party Politics 23(2): 96–109. doi: 10.1177/1354068814568046.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palau, A and Muñoz, L (2018). Spain: Government and opposition in a multilevel context. In Di Giorgi, E and Ilonszki, G (eds.), Opposition Parties in European Legislatures. Responsiveness Without Responsibility? London: Routledge, 113–122.Google Scholar
Panebianco, A (1988) Political Parties: Organization and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pérez Díaz, V (1997) La esfera pública y la sociedad civil. Madrid: Taurus.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, A and Lindeboom, GJ (2013) Interest Group-Party Linkage in the Twenty-First Century: Evidence from Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. European Journal of Political Research 52(2): 264–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodon, T and Hierro, MJ (2016) Podemos and Ciudadanos Shake up the Spanish Party System: The 2015 Local and Regional Elections. South European Society and Politics 21(3): 339–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez-Teruel, J and Barrio, A (2016) Going National: Ciudadanos from Catalonia to Spain. South European Society and Politics 21(4): 587–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez-Teruel, J, Barrio, A and Barberà, O (2016) Fast and Furious: Podemos’ Quest for Power in Multi-level Spain. South European Society and Politics 21(4): 561–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schattschneider, EE (1960) The Semi-Sovereign People. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Schlozman, K, Verba, S and Brady, H (2012) The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Siaroff, A (1999) Corporatism in 24 Industrial Democracies: Meaning and Measurement. European Journal of Political Research 36(2): 175–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soroka, SN and Wlezien, C (2009) Degrees of Democracy: Politics, Public Opinion, and Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, CS (2001) Political Parties and Interest Groups: Shaping Democratic Governance. Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Verge, T (2012) Party Strategies Towards Civil Society in New Democracies: The Spanish Case. Party Politics 18(1): 45–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wlezien, C (2005) On the Salience of Political Issues: The problem with ‘most important problem’. Electoral Studies 24(4): 555–579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yishai, Y (2001) Bringing Society Back in: Post-Cartel Parties in Israel. Party Politics 7(6): 667–687.CrossRefGoogle Scholar