Environmental regulation and governance, whether concerning climate, land, or biodiversity, are becoming increasingly complex and technically demanding. As a result, external actors—including environmental interest groups—are playing an expanding role not only in agenda-setting and policy implementation but also in rulemaking and regulatory processes. Their local presence, legitimacy, and extensive networks with key stakeholders position them as crucial actors in regulatory governance, particularly in the development and implementation of alternative regulatory approaches such as co-regulation and process-based regulation. However, the growing integration of these groups into regulatory processes also raises critical questions about the timing and influence of such stakeholder participation, as well as its implications for regulatory legitimacy and enforcement.
Building on these observations, this paper addresses three key questions:
1. How do different causal mechanisms and contextual factors shape the engagement of environmental interest groups at various stages of the regulatory process, from rulemaking to rule inspection?
2. What strategies do environmental interest groups employ to influence rule content and enforcement under different regulatory frameworks?
3. How does environmental interest organizations in regulatory processes reinforce or challenge existing regulatory regimes?
These questions are examined through a qualitative comparative case study of environmental interest groups in Switzerland and Australia. The study combines traditional data sources (documents and interviews) with media analysis (social networks and newspapers) and employs process-tracing to analyze stakeholder engagement in two environmental public policies. By considering institutional, legal, and economic opportunity structures, the analysis traces how interest groups adapt their strategies across different regulatory stages—from rulemaking to rule evaluation—sometimes even acting as regulatory intermediaries.
