Under What Conditions Do Interest Groups Succeed at Lobbying?:

Examining with a Regulatory Reform Issue-level Data Set

Abstract

  Under what conditions do interest groups succeed at lobbying? Through a large number of policy issues related to regulatory reform, this research shows that lobbying success is associated with issue-level factors. We created a data set based on policy issues, using documents the Cabinet Office had released. The material included interest groups’ policy proposals on regulatory reform issues, and the replies from administrative agencies. Using this data set, we analyzed the relationship between the characteristics of coalitions of interest groups lobbying with the same policy goal and the administrative agencies’ responses. The results showed that policy proposals from interest group coalitions which contain principal economic organizations (e.g., business groups and industry associations) tend to be considered by policy-makers, and ones from coalitions with diverse interests are then reflected in the actual policy. It is therefore suggested that coalitions among groups with the same goal in regulatory reform are likely to succeed when they include major economic lobbying groups in the agenda-setting stage, and then include diverse interests in the policy-making stage.