Under what conditions do interest groups litigate for social change?

Research on litigation as an advocacy tactic for achieving social change is prominent in the United States. Related studies in the European Union are comparatively scarce. We do know from case study research that European groups use this tactic, too, but so far we have little information about how important this tactic is compared to other advocacy tactics, what type of characteristics make some interest groups predisposed towards litigation, and what institutional contexts favour litigation as a tactic. The proposed paper addresses these questions by drawing on data from a large scale survey of European interest groups (the ‘Comparative Interest Group Survey’, www.cigsurvey.eu), which allows for a detailed comparative analysis of interest groups advocacy tactics in seven European countries. The paper will use data from surveys conducted in Belgium, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. The analysis will concentrate on such interest groups that advocate for social change. While all of the sampled countries are EU member states, the institutional context for litigation varies, and the inclusion of Poland