Lobbygruppen im politischen Wettbewerb: Die Auswirkungen des Konkurrenzkampfes unter Interessengruppen auf deren Lobbyverhalten

Lobby groups face direct competition from each other, yet the level of competition they face varies and depends on the political issue area they compete in. This article investigates the question, how these differing intensities of competition affect the lobbying behavior of interest organizations. Based on data stemming from a survey among Swiss and German interest groups, this article establishes that the intensity of competition among lobby groups positively influences both directly lobbying politicians (inside lobbying) but also exercising influence indirectly via the media and the public (outside lobbying). Yet it is also demonstrated that the inside lobbying benefits more strongly from higher competition levels, hence interest organizations look for ways to directly influence politicians first when they are faced with stiffer competition.     

党内法规与国家法:关联、区别及其关系之协调

党内法规与国家法同属于法的范畴,都是制度理性的产物。二者具有类同性,既相互保障,又相互制约,同时又在制定主体与实施主体、效力来源、适用的对象与领域、规范逻辑以及对公开性的要求方面存在着明显区别。作为我国社会主义法治体系的共同支撑,党内法规与国家法作为社会治理规则而在社会治理方面发挥作用时,难免会因其不同而产生冲突或不协调,而这种不协调显然会对我国全面推进依法治国战略及全面从严治党战略带来负面影响。为此,需要协调二者之间的关系。     

试论外国院外集团活动及其对美国对外政策的影响

美国作为全球唯一的超级大国 ,其对外政策关系到世界各国和国外利益集团的切身利益。各种代表国家和集团利益的外国院外集团为维护各自国家、民族和集团的利益 ,通过委托美国游说公司和具有特殊背景的人作为代理 ,在美国设立官方、民间机构 ,争取美国内具有共同利益的特殊集团的支持等方式进行院外活动 ,影响美国对外政策。因此 ,外国院外集团成为影响美国对外政策的重要因素 ,对美国对外政策的调整变化起着至关重要的作用     

Swiss Politicians' Ties: A Comprehensive Dataset

Focusing on the of 49^th Swiss legislature, we build a dataset about the politicians' links with lobbying groups. We approximate political ties considering three dimensions: (1) politicians' mandates in legal entities; (2) their professions, and (3) the enterprises, associations and other organizations related to the recipients of access rights provided by politicians. This research note proposes an objective and integrated way to classify the links coming from different sources by using codes of the General Classification of Economic Activities (NOGA2008). We find that the three dimensions used to approximate politicians' links are complementary, each of them containing additional information. Our results also show that politicians' interests distribution across economic categories depends on political group, gender and geographical origin.     

Preferring Rome to Brussels: Mapping Interest Group Europeanisation in Italy

ABSTRACT

How much do Italian interest groups undertake their advocacy/lobbying activities at the EU level? How often have groups gained access to different EU level institutions? This paper presents an original conceptualisation for the concept of ‘interest group Europeanisation’, which takes into account both the percentage of EU lobbying and access to EU institutions, and assesses the role of national centrality (i.e. access to national institutional venues and self-perceived influence in national policy-making) in determining whether there is more or less interest group Europeanisation. Original data from a national survey conducted on around 500 Italian interest groups are provided. Groups that are at the core of the national interest system are less likely to undertake a large part of their lobbying activities at the EU level, but more likely to gain EU access.     

Non-State Actors,Political Opportunity Structures and Foreign Relations: The Case of Germany's Federation of Expellees and the ‘Foundation Flight,Expulsion and Reconciliation’

This article examines the political process leading to the creation of the controversial ‘Foundation Flight, Expulsion and Reconciliation’ in Germany. The foundation aims to establish a permanent exhibition by 2016 showcasing the flight and expulsion of up to fifteen million Germans from the East following the Second World War. The foundation was the result of lobbying by the Federation of Expellees (BdV); it caused frictions in Germany's relations with its eastern neighbours and jeopardised Germany's reconciliation process with these states. The process reveals that the structure of Germany's polity, paired with astute alliance building and its members' rhetoric, aided the BdV's cause. Thus, non-state actors can utilise favourable domestic structures for the lack of material resources in order to maximise their lobbying ‘power’. This contributes to the growing literature on reconciliation in international relations which neglects domestic structures as a variable determining reconciliation processes in favour of more normative policy instruments.     

美国私人养老金担保项目的政治经济分析

私人养老金担保项目是《雇员退休收入保障法》中最有争议的措施,它由汽车工会等产业工会倡议,但由于受到企业雇主和部分劳联工会的反对,其出台经历了漫长曲折的斗争过程。在汽车工会和钢铁工会的游说压力之下,国会负责财税立法的委员会向负责劳工立法的委员会做出了完全的让步,使担保项目条款在很大程度上反映了产业工会所要求的高水平待遇保障。担保项目不仅允许联邦政府介入私人部门养老金,还在私人部门之间形成了一种强制性的再分配关系,使产业工会成员获得了享有保障的特权地位。     

Contested governance between politics and professionalism in Taiwan

This essay critically examines the evolution of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) in Taiwan. The ‘American-style’ EIA was originally introduced in Taiwan as an economic policy-making instrument. During the 1980s, grassroots environmental protests rose. The state first met the popular opposition by denying their professional status, and then sought a more peaceful resolution by upgrading the EIA. In 1994, owing to the combined effects of more accountable parliamentary and environmentalists' lobbying, the EIA was finally codified. Democratization also made the codified EIA more powerful and professional, as environmentalists preferred. The latter part of this essay examines the actual practice of the EIA since 1995, with special attention to some controversial cases. The current EIA failed the proclaimed standard of “science and objectivity,” as politics lurked in the disguise of professionalism.     

Who Governs and How? Non-State Actors and Transnational Governance in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

This special issue focuses on transnational governance, essentially cross-border networked forms of co-ordination in which non-state, or private, actors play important or leading roles in providing standards, rules and practices that other actors voluntarily abide by. While not denying the pre-eminent role of the state in governance, we nonetheless believe there is an under-estimation of transnational governance in Southeast Asia and the varied governance role played by non-state actors that go beyond that of simply acting as pressure or advisory groups lobbying or advising states and regional organisations. We provide five different case studies that explore in detail the varied governance roles played by non-state actors using the common analytical framework set out in this introduction. The case studies reveal interesting variations in the architecture of transnational governance, why they emerge, the modes of social co-ordination through which they work to shape actor behaviour and achieve impact, their normative implications, and how these governance schemes intersect with the state and national regulatory frameworks. This special issue, thus, highlights the variegated architecture of governance in this region in which non-state actors play substantial governance roles regulating the conduct of other actors.     

Morocco and the United States: A lobbying opportunity

Morocco is going to have to become more adept at lobbying its interests in the US if the free trade area between the two countries has a chance of success.     

Indonesia: The politics of inclusion

Much commentary on Indonesian politics since the fall of President Suharto in May 1998 has suggested that Indonesia's political system has remained just as exclusionary as it was prior to his fall, despite becoming much more democratic and decentralised. In contrast to this view, we argue that Indonesia's political system has become more inclusive, if only somewhat more so. The fall of Suharto and the subsequent process of democratisation have removed key obstacles to organisation by poor and disadvantaged groups and their NGO allies, making it easier for them to engage in collective action aimed at achieving pro-poor policy change. By making attainment of political office dependent on the support of the voting public, many of whom are poor and disadvantaged, these developments have also created an incentive for politicians to pursue policy changes that favour these groups or at least that appeal to them. At the same time, however, we argue that poor and disadvantaged groups have not become major players in the policy-making process. Despite the fall of Suharto and democratisation, these groups continue to lack the resources possessed by other participants in the policy-making process. Whereas the politico-bureaucrats and well-connected business groups have been able to exercise influence over policy by buying support within representative bodies such as parliament and mobile capital controllers, the IFIs and Western governments have been able to exercise influence by virtue of their structural power, poor and disadvantaged groups have had to rely on less potent ways of exercising influence such as holding demonstrations, engaging in lobbying activity and participating in public debates. We illustrate these points with reference to two policy issues: land reform and mining in protected forests. The article concludes by considering the future prospects for inclusive policy-making in Indonesia.     

Between the Dock and a Hard Place: Hazards and Opportunities of Legal Pluralism for Indigenous Women in Ecuador

This article examines the challenges and opportunities of indigenous justice for women in Ecuador. The legal recognition of indigenous justice is a major component of democratization in the region. Yet it also raises the risk of institutionalizing detrimental gender biases within indigenous forms of law. Taking the Remache case as a point of departure, this article identifies some of the fault lines in legal pluralism and women's conflicted relationship with it. Rather than rejecting customary law, however, women advocate for their rights within it—lobbying for gender parity within indigenous justice in the 2008 Constitutional Assembly. As women's support for indigenous justice relocates legal authority, it also challenges conventional practices of state sovereignty. To understand the attractiveness of legal pluralism for women and its impact on the state, this study explores the confines of feminist alliances, the accessibility of indigenous justice, and its implications for state sovereignty.     

Apparence et réalité du pouvoir de représentation des provinces à Paris L'exemple des Etats provinciaux du Nord au XVIIIème siècle

SUMMARY

In this article, Marie-Laure Legay has examined the relations of the Provincial Estates on the north-eastern border of France—Flanders, Artois and le Cambrésis—with the central government. It shows that they did not waste energy disputing the tax demands of the crown, their right to assent to taxation had been reduced to a formality and they voted them without debate. But they then used direct representations through the delegations they sent to Paris, which usually resulted in some concessions being made by the crown. Similarly the Estates did not engage in formal assertions of their autonomy, but the full-time agents they hired in the capital processed a flow of remonstrances and petitions to the agencies of the central government. Thus instead of resisting the movement towards increased centralization of authority, they used it to pursue local advantages. In this way, the Estates were able to purchase the right to make appointments to local offices, while they repeatedly bypassed the Intendant, lobbying successfully for the transfer of many of his areas of competence to the Estates. This pragmatic strategy of working with the system, rather than opposing it was pursued consistencly down to 1789.     

International Norms and the End of Apartheid in South Africa

This article examines the interface in the post-World War II era between expanding global movements supporting human rights and traditional great power concerns regarding global security, and asks why an international alliance of actors mobilized to pressure the Western powers, particularly the USA, to politically isolate and economically sanction South Africa in the midst of the cold war. We argue that in the international struggle against apartheid, humanist (human rights) ideology emanating from social movements in global civil society clashed with traditional realist ideology regarding what constituted state security in the global polity. The norms of self-determination of nations and anti-racism together fueled global activism and challenged powerful Western states. Facing mass protests and lobbying efforts from citizens, democratic states across the Western world found greater security in upholding their own professed human rights principles than in maintaining close economic ties to the apartheid regime.     

Women in the House (of Parliament) in Fiji: What’s Gender Got to Do with It?

Abstract

Women in Fiji have made steady, albeit slow, progress in terms of parliamentary representation, with women now holding 14% of seats in the lower house of parliament. Some of the progress has occurred as a result of improvements associated with increased socio-economic development, such as education, female employment and incremental changes in women’s standing in Fiji society. Much of this change, however, has been due to women’s movements and civil society activism becoming more astute to concerns of gender equality and lobbying for women’s political participation. In a country that witnessed four political coups, women have had to create their own path into the public sphere. Despite progress, with an increasing number of women in the 2014 parliament, patriarchy is still a major force hindering women’s political advancement in Fiji. This paper argues that a combination of cultural stereotyping and persistent gendered norms contribute to masculinisation of the political realm and eulogise women’s role in the private sphere. But gender intersecting with ethnicity, age and class create differential levels of political agency for different groups of women in Fiji.     

The Personal Is Political: The Cuban Ethnic Electoral Policy Cycle

This article documents a U.S. Cuban foreign policy cycle that operated in tandem with the presidential electoral cycle between 1992 and 2004. During these post–Cold War years, when Cuba posed no threat to U.S. national security, influential, well-organized Cuban Americans leveraged political contributions and votes to tighten the embargo on travel and trade, especially at the personal level. U.S. presidential candidates, most notably incumbent presidents seeking re-election, responded to their demands with discretionary powers of office. When presidential candidates supported policies that made good electoral sense but conflicted with concerns of state, they subsequently reversed or left unimplemented Cuba initiatives. After describing the logic behind an ethnic electoral policy cycle and U.S. personal embargo policy between 1992 and 2004, this article examines Cuban American voter participation, political and policy preferences, lobbying, political contributions, and the relationship between the ethnic policy and presidential election cycles.     

“But it is our duty!” Exploring Gazprom’s reluctance to Russian gas sector reform

Reform of the Russian domestic natural gas sector has been discussed for several decades but has not been carried out. The state-controlled energy company Gazprom holds a dominant position in the domestic market, supplying the population with gas, carrying out societal functions, and in return getting privileges from the state. Recently, however, independent gas producers have increased their market shares and are lobbying for liberalization. While Gazprom might gain from reform, it continues to warn against the dangers of altering the gas market structure too abruptly. Analyzing Gazprom’s reasoning through an ideational analytical lens, this article finds that Gazprom’s reluctance to change can be explained not only by its interests but also by norms and beliefs. Reform studies should take note of Gazprom’s idea of “keeping the country together,” not least because the company has a sounding board in the President, who makes the final decisions.     

Political Finance Regimes in Southeast Asia: Introduction

ABSTRACT

The three articles in this themed collection investigate the interplay between political finance regimes and the quality of democracy in Southeast Asia. Andreas Ufen's piece on political finance in Malaysia and Singapore argues that the semi-authoritarian regimes in both states have blocked the reform of campaign and party funding regulations in order to keep their opposition in check. The article on Indonesia, authored by Marcus Mietzner, showcases the country's dysfunctional political finance system as a major hurdle toward further democratization. In their contribution on Thailand, Napisa Waitoolkiat and Paul Chambers show that weak political finance regulations have contributed significantly to the shallowness of Thai parties. Overall, the collection demonstrates that without meaningful political finance reforms, Southeast Asia's democratic stagnation is likely to persist for many years to come.     

From Nativism to the Quota Laws: Restrictionist Pressure Groups and the US Congress 1879–1924

SUMMARY

In this article Professor Frank has investigated the history of attempts to pass restrictive immigration legislation through the United States Congress. The character and activities of the different lobbying groups is analyzed and the article shows how it was the resistance of the Executive Branch, largely through the use of the veto power, that held back legislation until 1917. Thereafter liberal opposition to the extension of immigration laws was increasingly ineffectual and marginalized. The study ends with the passage of the Quota Act of 1924.     

The governance of shale gas production in South Africa

The proper governance of shale gas mining in the Karoo region of South Africa is important. With an estimated 390 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas, large economic gains are possible. This may dramatically change the South African energy sector; in the United States, similar explorations have led to what pundits term the ‘shale gas revolution’. The development and production of shale gas hold economic advantages, but also potential environmental costs, thus the regulation of fracking activities is an important consideration as the development of shale gas in the Karoo progresses. This study reviews the regulations imposed in other countries as well as the current regulatory framework of South Africa. This article analyses these regulations in terms of the content of fracking fluid, seismic activity and the pricing regime. Effective regulation will be key to maximise a positive impact, should shale gas development continue.