Autonomous Agencies as Targets of Influence. Examining Interest Group Mobilisation Patterns at Autonomous Agencies Over Time

Many interest group consider prolonged access to public agency officials as an important asset. Accordingly, the bureaucracy is often considered a prime target for the exercise of influence. This tendency not only applies to central state departments but increasingly involves multiple administrative bodies such as supranational bureaucracies and autonomous agencies. Given the growing number of autonomous agencies both at the national and supranational level in the recent decades and the tendency of these administrative bodies to actively involve stakeholders, interest groups face an additional venue where they can potentially exercise influence. This paper analyses interest group mobilization patterns vis-à-vis such administrative bodies over time and at different levels of governance. It adopts a longitudinal design, which compares mobilization patterns in financial regulation and environmental politics over time and across member-state, European and the international level.