The political activities of associations at the national and European levels

Ample evidence indicates that many associations engage in political activity, both at the national and the EU level. Nevertheless, so far there have been no cross-national studies of the extent of this political activity, the relative importance of the national and the EU levels for these associations, and variation in lobbying patterns across different types of associations (business associations, labour unions, NGOs and professional associations).

This project, which is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), and carried out by Gemma Mateo and me at the Salzburg Centre of European Union Studies, fills this gap. The core of the project are surveys of representative samples of national associations that we have been carrying out since 2009 in the following countries:

• Ireland (2009): we contacted 402 Irish associations, which we identified through the Administration Yearbook & Diary, and had a response rate of 41%.

• Spain (2010): we contacted 515 Spanish associations based on a random, stratified sample drawn from the National Registry of Associations and labor and employers' unions mentioned in the Boletín Oficial del Estado. Our response rate was 44%.

• Germany (2011): we contacted 500 German associations from lists maintained by the Bundestag and verbaende.com and obtained a response rate of 40%. This survey was featured in the Verbände Report (November 2011, pp. 6-13).

• Austria (2011): we contacted 403 associations and received 170 responses (response rate of 41%).

• Latvia (2012): we contacted 341 associations and received 122 responses (response rate of 36%). This research was presented at the Office of the European Parliament in Riga (link).

The questionnaire contains sections on:

• associations' overall lobbying activity (including the importance of different resources for the lobbying activity),

• lobbying tactics (what tactics do they use?),

• lobbying targets (whom do they contact how often?) and

• associations' characteristics (membership, staff, policy fields).

Brief summaries of the findings for each country can be found here:

1. Irish Associations and Lobbying on EU Legislation: Resources, Access Points, and Strategies: This research note summarises the findings from a survey that asked Irish associations about their lobbying activity with respect to European Union legislation. The authors received 164 responses after having contacted 401 associations. The resulting data show that Irish associations engage in substantial legislative lobbying, also at the EU level. In fact, Irish associations have surprisingly good access to even the highest political levels in Ireland and the EU. Especially the associations active in policy fields with strong EU competences focus their lobbying activity on EU legislation. The resulting lobbying is characterised mainly by inside tactics, although there is variation across types of associations, with nongovernmental organisations engaging in more outside lobbying than business or professional associations.

2. La actividad política de las asociaciones espanolas: resultados de una encuesta: We present findings from a survey of Spanish associations that we carried out in 2010. For this survey, we asked a random sample of 515 associations, including business associations, citizens’ groups and professional associations, to respond to a series of questions on their political activity. Based on 224 responses, we find that Spanish associations engage in a high level of political activity; that they concentrate their political activities mainly on national legislation and have most contacts with national decision-makers; that they also engage in a surprising amount of lobbying on European Union policies; that they mainly rely on inside tactics, that is, try to influence decision-makers directly rather than via public opinion; and that there are important differences in the political activities of different types of associations. Overall, the data that we have collected offer the most comprehensive and systematic picture of the political behaviour of Spanish associations currently available.

3. Die politischen Aktivitäten deutscher Verbände: Resultate einer Umfrage: Im Frühjahr 2011 führten wir eine Umfrage unter deutschen Verbänden durch, deren vorrangiges Ziel es war, die politischen Aktivitäten von Verbänden zu untersuchen. Wir kontaktierten 500 Verbände und erhielten 199 Antworten, was einer Rücklaufquote von 39.8 Prozent entspricht. Den Fragebogen, den wir verwendeten, hatten wir schon zuvor in Umfragen in Irland (2009) und in Spanien (2010) eingesetzt. In der Zwischenzeit haben wir auch eine Umfrage in Österreich durchgeführt. Im Folgenden stellen wir kurz die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der deutschen Umfrage vor, wobei wir teilweise Vergleiche mit den anderen Umfragen anstellen.

4. Die politischen Aktivitäten österreichischer Verbände: Mitte 2011 führten wir eine Umfrage unter österreichischen Vereinen und Verbänden durch, deren vorrangiges Ziel es war, die politischen Aktivitäten von Verbänden zu untersuchen. Wir kontaktierten 403 Verbände und erhielten 170 Antworten, was einer Rücklaufquote von 42.2 Prozent entspricht. Den Fragebogen, den wir verwendeten, hatten wir schon zuvor in Umfragen in Deutschland (2011), Irland (2009) und Spanien (2010) eingesetzt. Eine Umfrage in Lettland steht derzeit (Anfang 2012) kurz vor dem Abschluss. Im Folgenden stellen wir kurz die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der österreichischen Umfrage vor, wobei wir teilweise Vergleiche mit den Umfragen in den anderen Staaten anstellen.

5. Latvijas nevalstisko organizāciju aktivitāte interešu pārstāvībā. Pētījuma rezultāti (summary of the Latvian survey, in Latvian, by Ilze Ruse)

A first analytic paper asks why some associations have better access to decision makers on EU legislation than others. The paper can be downloaded here. We currently work on additional papers concerning interest group strategies (see an early version here) and direct versus indirect EU lobbying.

Our research on German associations was subject of a story in the Verbände Report (November 2011, gated). The research was also highlighted in the 2011 edition of the research report of the University of Salzburg ("Lobbying for political science", from p.40 onwards).