Transparency Policy and Interest Groups: Venue Shopping Across Regional and National Levels of Governance

The goal of this paper is to explain the role interest groups play in transparency policies across 17 regional governments and the national government in Spain from 2004 to present. Spain has been regarded as an exceptional case in this matter, as until 2013 it was the only major EU member state without a transparency legislation framework. Academic literature on transparency policy is set along two lines of analysis. On the one hand, authors like Banisar (2006) focus the analysis on the similarities and differences on the content of transparency laws across time, and territories. On the other hand, agenda setting scholars focus on the factors that have driven the process of transparency law passage. In this line, some authors like Berliner and Erlich (2015) or Alt, Lassen and Rose (2006) argue partisan competition as the main driver of transparency policies. Other authors like Berliner (2013) suggest international organizations like the EU as key promoters of policy change. All these studies provide evidence about the importance of external factors, preferences and institutional factors in the process of policy change. Although many recognize the important contribution of interest groups to this process, there scare evidence about the role of interest groups in the passage of transparency laws. This study is aimed to fill this gap, providing evidence on the influence of civil society actors in this process of policy change comparing transparency policies across the 17 Comunidades Autónomas (or regional governments) and the national government in Spain. To do this, we have created a database with information about all the interest groups organizations that have participated in governmental consultation processes, parliament hearings; or those that are mentioned in the media as key actors regarding transparency policy. For each interest organization we have gathered information about seniority, resources, and mobilization strategies. Also, we identify the scope of interest groups mobilization across policy venues –national level (Spain), regional level (each of the 17 Comunidades Autónomas or regional governments), and the EU—. We expect interest groups mobilization to be highly concentrated in a few set of interest organizations; that access of interest groups to the governmental and parliamentarian arena varies across regional governments depending on institutional factors; and that larger, more experienced and expert organizations have more possibilities to have an impact on the legislative process (imposing their preferences) than other groups. This paper also seeks to establish a bridge between the two sets of literature by suggesting the need to measure the influence of interest groups that advocated for transparency policies on the legislation content and scope. More broadly, the results can be revealing in terms of shedding a light on new legislation dynamics in which particular interest groups may have more access and influence than expected.