Corporate Political Fragmentation in the European Union

Does the business community share a common political agenda? Historically, many scholars have assumed that it does. However, the empirical answer, to whether this is true or not, does not lend itself to a simple 'yes' or 'no'. If unity seemed to be strong during earlier decades, it is now clear that the business community displays much more fragmentation these days. With regards to the American context, the unity and fragmentation of the business community has been a flourishing research area. However, if we shift focus to the European Union, we know much less. In this proposed Paper I set out to explore how large American, German, and British firms direct their lobbying activities in the European Union. More specifically, I ask a twofold question: to what extent do they lobby on the same issues and to what extent do they agree or oppose each other? It has long been known that the political power of the business community is contingent on its ability to be united. Therefore, I hope with this Paper to shed light on a question that has been a surprisingly understudied research topic among European interest group scholars. I will show how the main political conflict lines run across the business community in Brussels and what can explain fore the fact that some firms display a rock solid unity while others are basically at war with each other.