The French do it everywhere, but not the Dutch
The advent of multilevel governance provides interest groups in European countries with the opportunity to seek influence in more places. In the current issue of Governance, Jan Beyers and Bart Kerremans of the University of Antwerp conduct an empirical analysis to discover what actually shapes the venue shopping strategies of national interest groups. “French organizations develop extensive multi-level strategies,” they find, “while the strategies of Dutch organizations are weakly Europeanized.” Broadly, though, it is unproductive to draw national stereotypes. A critical factor is the extent to which interest groups achieve access to domestic policymakers. It is not that interest groups which are unsuccessful at the national level are driven to lobby elsewhere. On the contrary, success at the national level seems to create the basis for more extensive activity at higher levels as well. Read the article.
