The engagement of public interest groups as regulatory intermediaries

This article investigates the role of a public interest group and their engagement in regulatory processes. Through a case study based on documents analysis and complement with experts’ interviews, the article explores the role of a public interest group in the Swiss land regulatory regime. It describes how regulatory authorities engage the public interest group as an intermediary (Abbott et al. 2017), and the different regulatory tasks they delegate to it. It exposes first that a public interest group use not only visible strategies to influence a regulatory regime, but also “insider” strategies. Secondly, it suggests that public authorities conduct an “intermediary shopping”, meaning they turn to regulatory intermediaries when it best serves their interests. Finally, the article concludes that instead of implementing land public policies as formulated in federal laws, swiss cantonal public authorities rely on public interest groups to regulate land-use.