The paper analyses the participation of interest groups in electoral and governmental agenda-setting in France. Based on an extensive data base set up in 1999 and including 550 members of various interest groups, this research project focuses on what is at stake between lobby members and political party members of staff during electoral campaigns. Elections are strategic moments for interest groups which intend to ‘shake up the public sphere’ by issuing statements to the press, lobbying public institutions, and organising different activities such as meetings, seminars etc. By so doing, they assert their will to participate in bringing about change in administration, regulatory frameworks and public policies. These moments have received barely any academic attention.
The fieldwork (interviews, ethnographic observation, questionnaires and documentary analysis) will start in January 2012 during the French Presidential election campaign. It will involve a research team of 12 CNRS-related researchers, coordinated by the two co-authors of the present proposal. This paper will deal with the interactions between the staff of political parties and interest groups, how the latter exert political pressure, the concrete day-to-day activities of the actors involved, as well as a sociological analysis of their education/training, careers, and background. The emphasis will be put on the outcomes of such encounters in terms of formulating policy options included (or not) in electoral and governmental manifestos
