Homo-/ heterogeneity of interest groups: Exploring national and European level antecedents and implications

Interest intermediation in higher education, as in other parts of the public sector, is clearly a complex multi-level phenomenon, comprising two related developments. One, decision-makers at lower governance levels often engage in uploading or downloading policy preferences, and such (often strategic) behaviour implies that decisions at one level influence and are influenced by decisions taken at other levels of governance. Two, organizations representing various interests take advantage of this multi-level context and engage in venue- and level-shopping, organize into associations or build advocacy coalitions to strengthen their lobbying power. Taken together, these two developments mean that the national level interest groups operate in a multi-level environment. This study takes this multi-level characteristic of the organizational environment as its point of departure and, by focusing on national level student unions, explores national and European level antecedents of organizational homo-/heterogeneity of interest groups and discusses the implications for national and European level interest intermediation. The study first maps characteristics of organizations representing the interests of students in 44 European countries – specifically formal organizational structure, organizational image, and breadth of policy agenda – and based on that assesses the extent of organizational homogeneity/heterogeneity. Based on insights from interest groups and organization theory literature, the analysis then explores to what extent this can be accounted for by: (a) characteristics of their national interest intermediation contexts, specifically intensity of competition for members and resources, relationship with the state (recognition, funding), relationship with other national level actors and recent policy changes that concern higher education governance arrangements, and (b) European dynamics, specifically membership in European level associations and advocacy coalitions, as well as European level policy developments concerning higher education governance. The final part of the study discusses the implications of the identified levels of homogeneity and heterogeneity for interest intermediation at the national and European level, specifically with regards to legitimacy and effectiveness.