Lobbying in ‘unprecedented’ times: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on systems of interest representation

Abstract

The ability of different social and economic groups to voice their concerns is an integral part of a well-functioning democracy. Much of the existing scholarship documents the role of interest groups and lobbying in ‘normal’ circumstances, that is in the absence of shocks and crises which corrupt the standard political process. Crises are however a regular - if not cyclical - reality of politics. As such, a better understanding of the role of lobbying in crisis circumstances is paramount. This panel proposes to extend our knowledge of interest group activities in crisis circumstances through the analysis of lobbying during the COVID-19 pandemic (see Junk et al. 2021; Bonafont and Iborra 2021; Eady and Rasmussen 2021). This global health crisis has put countries and their population under huge strain. Political scientists have already started documenting its importance with a focus on the crisis’ impact on public opinion (Jennings et al. 2021; Bol et al. 2021; Crepaz and Arikan 2021), public policy (Altiparmakis et al. 2021; Engler et al. 2021; Chari and Rozas 2021) and legislative behaviour (Louwerse 2021). The panel’s aim is to stimulate scholars to further investigate lobbying in pandemic times. Crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, put governments and interest groups under special pressures. Emergencies leave decision-makers and organised interests with uncertainty and little time to make informed decisions (Lipscy 2020), with consequences for state-civil society relationships and ultimately for policy. The panel offers five perspectives which narrate of lobbying in COVID-19 times. They shed light into the challenges faced by interest groups during the pandemic, the effects of their activities on policy outputs and public opinion but also the opportunities the pandemic has created for lobbying. Overall, the panel provides an evaluation of the level of resilience of systems of interest representation in contemporary democracies. Marcel Hanegraaff and Wiebke Marie Junk use the COVID-19 pandemic as a system-wide shock to address the axiom of the collective action problem and disentangle whether organisations that lobby more frequently are also more satisfied with the policy outcome. Jack O’Neill, Lily Rice and Raj Chari delve into the aviation sector to trace the influence of the airline lobby in the US, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and Belgium on one of the most affected sectors by the pandemic. Michele Crepaz, Wiebke Marie Junk, Marcel Hanegraaff and Joost Berkhout use data from two surveys conducted between 2020 and 2021 in seven European countries to assess whether lobbying in crises circumstances is much different from ‘business as usual’. Laura Chaques-Bonafont and Camilo Cristancho employ a survey experiment to test whether positive communication strategies used by interest groups during the COVID-19 crisis improve public attitudes towards these. Alberto Bitonti analyses digital transformation in lobbying and uses the COVID-19 pandemic as driver of the process of innovation in the management of lobbying campaigns, from their inception, through their strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation.

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