Lobbying Locally – Insights from the Finnish Municipalities

In research related to local governments, there has been a growing interest in collaborative and interactive forms of governance. These discussions highlight the role of networks, as well as involvement and interaction among different actors in local planning and decision-making processes (see e.g Edelenbos 2005; Ansell & Gash 2008). While attention has been given to the possibilities for different actors, including public organisations, private firms, NGOs, and citizens, to participate at the local level, there is a research gap regarding the role of lobbying in these processes. Lobbying, as a part of democratic governance, has garnered societal and scientific interest in recent years. For instance, lobbying in EU institutions and national politics has been extensively studied (for example, Woll 2006; Kluver 2013; Coen, Katsaitis & Vannoni 2021). We believe that lobbying should be better recognised as a part of local democratic processes. A new perspective is needed to highlight the positive, democracy-promoting aspect of lobbying while remaining mindful of problems related to political influence. This is particularly crucial in Finland, where local governments have broad service duties and constitutionally guaranteed autonomy. In our paper, we present the initial findings of our project (2023–2027) that examines local-level lobbying in nine municipalities in Finland. We begin with a literature review to establish the existing knowledge about lobbying at the local level. In the second part of the paper, we focus on the first of our three research questions: how lobbying manifests itself in the everyday political life of local governments? Based on interview data collected in 2023–2024, we tentatively argue that lobbying is indeed a part of local-level decision-making processes, but often it remains in the shadows and its crucial role as an agent of change is not openly and transparently acknowledged.