Delegated Irresponsibility? The Role and Governance of Business Association in Contemporary Lobbying

Business associations are the most influential and consequential corporate political agents in many important policy domains and in most major policy fora, including at EU level. Their lobbying expenditure dwarfs that of individual companies , their disproportionate salience and impact on specific policy-making processes is well documented . Despite their significance however, business associations have until very recently largely escaped effective public scrutiny regarding how responsibly they do and should behave. Their funding and governance structures remain largely opaque. Even their membership base and internal strategy/ decision-making processes are typically a ‘black box’ even though they primarily derive their legitimacy and role in policymaking through the claim to represent the interest of their members. Meanwhile, empirical evidence increasingly confirms that business associations are often used by some companies to outsource reputationally challenging, obstructionist lobbying and hard-ball tactics. And a growing number of anecdotal examples attest to serious governance issues with some major business associations failing on basic organisational governance standards while other cause a stir among their membership by taking uncoordinated policy positions. Our research contributes to the gradually expanding literature on business associations by seeking to more systematically explore the internal governance practices of business associations, as well as the regulatory frameworks that they are embedded in in different contexts. We examine the top 74 business associations operating at EU level (the ones spending more than EUR 1 million on lobbying annually) with regard to more than 25 attributes that cover their transparency and disclosure practices, decisions-making structures, funding models and other governance attributes. Based on this empirical scan complemented by key informant interviews we map common patterns and practices, identify regulatory features and shortcomings and also surface interesting positive deviant practices that attest to potentially innovative and progressive dynamics. We conclude with a normative outlook on how the observed patterns do or do not align with claims for representation and legitimacy and how they map or do not map onto evolving stakeholder expectations and regulatory standards on responsible lobbying in the era of polarisation and disinformation.