Polish Interest Groups in Times of Democratic Backsliding: Mapping Current Challenges

There are two main lobbying strategies well-established in literature: gaining access (insider lobbying) and going public (outsider lobbying). The literature suggests that group type is an important determinant of organisations’ lobbying behaviour (Maloney et al. 1994; Binderkrantz 2008; Hanegraaff et al. 2016): business groups, comparing to NGOs, rely more intensively on inside strategies because they possess technical information which is more easily transmitted via inside lobbying (Dür & Mateo 2013). In this paper, we analyse different types of Polish interest groups––including cause and business ones––and strategies they use in order to influence the policy-making process. We base our analysis on new survey data collected among Polish interest groups in 2017 conducted within the Comparative Interest Group Survey initiative (Beyers 2016; Kamiński & Rozbicka 2017). The survey addresses a wide range of issues, i.a. organisational characteristics, financial sustainability, various types of activities and strategies of interest groups. We expect to find variations with respect to lobbying strategies between different types of groups. Cause groups are expected to rely mainly on outside lobbying, because they receive less financial support from local or central budgets and that they are less integrated into the political process. Business groups, however, are well-endowed with information linked to particular policy area, they may enjoy direct access to policy makers and thus are more likely to rely on inside strategies and consider outside strategy as a last resort. There are several reasons to investigate Poland as a case. Since 2015 Polish interest groups operate in a political situation of democratic backslide and face new challenges. As institutional framework shapes lobbying behaviour, we also seek to answer whether possible threats (e.g. less financial resources, lack of channels to influence the government, decrease in transparency), make them change their strategies. Also, we pay attention on the government influence on interest groups. Since there have been no large-scale studies on interest groups and lobbying in Central and Eastern Europe, our paper on Polish interest groups is an important contribution to the literature. Beyers J., Bernhagen P., Braun C., Fink-Hafner D., Heylen F., Maloney W., Naurin D., Pakull D. (2016), ‘Comparative Interest Group Survey Questionnaire’, University of Antwerp. Binderkrantz, A. (2008). Different groups, different strategies: How interest groups pursue their political ambitions. Scandinavian Political Studies, 31(2): 173-200. Dür, A. & Mateo, G. (2013) Gaining Access or Going Public? Interest Group Strategies in Five European Countries. European Journal of Political Research, 52(5): 660-686. Hanegraaff, M., Beyers, J., & De Bruycker, I. (2016). Balancing inside and outside lobbying: The political strategies of lobbyists at global diplomatic conferences. European Journal of Political Research Kamiński, P. & Rozbicka P. (2017) Ogólnopolska ankieta odnośnie organizacji pozarządowych i grup biznesu. Aston University i Uniwersytet Jagielloński. 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.