Do They Need Political Parties? The Fulfilment of Interest Groups' Policy Priorities and Requests in the Dutch Coalition Agreement

This study leverages unique data revealing the policy requests of Dutch interest groups to investigate whether their preferences and priorities were translated into the 2017 coalition agreement. Importantly, the paper investigates whether groups need political parties to attain their preferences. While studies increasingly consider the ties between political parties and groups, scholars have paid less attention to whether interest organizations need the help of parties to get their issues on the agenda and their policy wishes implemented. This study aims to contribute to this field through a unique dataset; During the 2017 Dutch coalition negotiations over 1000 interest groups sent 700 letters to the (in)formateur chairing the meetings. For the first time, these letters have been made available to the public offering a snapshot of the policy priorities and preferences of active interest groups in the country. By hand- coding the policy requests in the letters, this study traces whether a) groups get their policy issues into the (detailed) coalition agreement and thus on the government’s agenda and b) whether they also get substantive policies they requested. The approach thus provides a neat match between the policy preferences of groups and their preference attainment. Moreover, by coding whether the policy requests by interest groups also feature in the extensive electoral programs of the political parties, the study sheds light on the important question whether groups need political parties to embrace their issues to both get attention for their policy priorities and the substantive fulfilment of their requests.