Bypassing collective interest representation: When and why do corporations lobby alone?

In the last decades, interest representation has changed in notable ways. Among the crucial developments are an increased professionalism of lobbying and a more prominent role of other actors than traditional interest groups (Ihlen et al. 2021). Recent research has for example documented the prominent role of private corporations across different policy relevant contexts arenas (Aizenberg and Hanegraaff 2019). This paper focuses on a context that may be relatively resilient towards an increased political role of private corporations: Scandinavia. The Scandinavian countries are characterized very well organized interest group systems. They also have a strong corporatist tradition where representatives of labor and business have been routinely involved in policymaking. Still, there is reason to expect that particularly major private corporations have adapted to the rupture in corporatist institutions and the more dominant role of other political arenas such as the media (Binderkrantz and Christiansen 2015). In this paper, we ask: To what extent have individual corporations increased their political activity in the last two decades and what factors explain variation in the political activities of corporations? The analysis draws on two surveys among Danish companies. The first one was conducted in 2001 (Christiansen and Nørgaard 2003)and the second will be conducted in the spring of 2022. This allows us to directly compare to what degree corporations are politically active today with the situation two decades ago. The surveys include questions about both contacts to decision makers, media directed activities and the use of public affairs agencies. In the 2022 survey, we will include questions designed to capture the firm level factors that may affect political activities and the factors related to specific issues that may affect the strategic choices of a firm. References Aizenberg, Ellis, and Marcel Hanegraaff. 2019. "Time is of the Essence: A Longitudinal Study on Business Presence in Political News in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. ." The International Journal of Press/Politics. Binderkrantz, Anne Skorkjær, and Peter Munk Christiansen. 2015. "Decades of Change? Interest Group Representation in Danish Public Committees in 1975 and 2010." Journal of European Public Policy 22(7):1022-39. Christiansen, Peter Munk, and Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard. 2003. De som meget har... Store danske virksomheder som politiske aktører. Aarhus: Magtudredningen. Ihlen, Øyvind; Binderkrantz, Anne Skorkjær and PerOla Öberg (2021). "Lobbying in Scandinavia" in Power, communication, and politics in the Nordic countries. ed. / E. Skogerby; Ø. Ihlen; N. N. Kristensen; L. Nord. Göteborg : Nordicom, 2021