Andreas Dür - Böcker

What explains differences in the lobbying behaviour of interest groups? And what consequences do these differences have for the access that interest groups can gain to decision-makers and the influence that they can exert on policy outcomes? Building on an unprecedented amount of empirical evidence on lobbying in Europe, this book puts forward a distinction between lobbying insiders and lobbying outsiders. Lobbying insiders, most prominently business interests, try to establish direct contacts with decision-makers, enjoy good access to executive institutions, and manage to shape policy outcomes when mobilizing the public on an issue is difficult. Lobbying outsiders, in particular citizen groups such as consumer, environmental or health non-governmental organizations, put greater emphasis on mobilizing the public or changing public attitudes, find it easier to gain access to legislative decision-makers, and have the greatest impact on outcomes on issues that are amenable to an outside lobbying campaign. The book shows that a single argument, building on group type as the main variable, can explain variation across interest groups in their choice of strategy, their access to decision-makers, and the conditions under which they can exert influence. The existence of lobbying insiders and lobbying outsiders has important implications for both our understanding of political decision-making and the normative appraisal of contemporary democracy.

Negotiations are central to the ethos and functioning of the European Union, yet the dynamics of EU negotiations have received far too little systematic scholarly attention. This volume offers a thematic and forward-looking survey of cutting-edge research on EU negotiation dynamics, identifying findings to date and setting an empirical and methodological agenda for future research.The chapters by leading international experts address a wide range of critical questions in this area, including: What factors influence negotiation behaviour and outcomes in the EU? How can we explain variation in the choice of negotiation styles? When do actors engage in arguing or bargaining? What are the determinants of bargaining power? What are the institutional foundations of EU negotiations? And what role does the presidency play in EU negotiations? The volume also discusses how the findings of the multi-disciplinary field of ‘negotiation studies’ can inform research on negotiation dynamics in the EU.The volume will be of great interest to established scholars and advanced students of international relations, European integration and governance, and negotiation analysis.This book was based on a special issue of Journal of European Public Policy.

The European Union is a key actor in international economic governance. Through its foreign economic policies it plays a central role in the negotiation of international trade agreements, the global regulation of the financial services sector, and the provision of aid to developing countries. This book shows how principal-agent theory can be used to shed new light on this complex of policy areas. In particular, the contributions to this volume analyze delegation, control, and agent strategies in a variety of principal-agent relationships shaping the EU’s foreign economic policies: mainly those involving interest groups and governments; governments and the European Commission; and the European Union and international organizations.The chapters, written by leading experts in the field, offer empirically-rich studies of various areas of the EU’s external economic relations including trade, financial regulation, accounting standards and global regulation through the G7/G8. The book is aimed at researchers and advanced students interested in the EU, international economic relations, and principal-agent theory.This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

The European Union is a key actor in international economic governance. Through its foreign economic policies it plays a central role in the negotiation of international trade agreements, the global regulation of the financial services sector, and the provision of aid to developing countries. This book shows how principal-agent theory can be used to shed new light on this complex of policy areas. In particular, the contributions to this volume analyze delegation, control, and agent strategies in a variety of principal-agent relationships shaping the EU’s foreign economic policies: mainly those involving interest groups and governments; governments and the European Commission; and the European Union and international organizations.The chapters, written by leading experts in the field, offer empirically-rich studies of various areas of the EU’s external economic relations including trade, financial regulation, accounting standards and global regulation through the G7/G8. The book is aimed at researchers and advanced students interested in the EU, international economic relations, and principal-agent theory.This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

Many citizens, politicians, and political activists voice concern about the political influence of business in the European Union. But do business interests really pull the strings in Brussels? Contrary to expectations, this book shows that business interests are no more influential than other interests in shaping contemporary EU policies. Andreas Dür, David Marshall, and Patrick Bernhagen present an original argument that stresses the role of public actors in facilitating or impeding interest groups’ lobbying success. Novel data on a large number of legislative proposals on the EU’s agenda and three case studies present strong support for this argument. The Political Influence of Business in the European Union offers new insights into how lobbying success depends on the demand and supply of information, as well as new ideas on how to measure lobbying success. The book advances a fresh perspective on the question of business power and shows why business interests often lose in the policy struggle.

The liberalization of transatlantic trade relations since the Great Depression is one of the key developments in the global political economy of the last hundred years. This period has seen the negotiated reduction of both tariffs and nontariff barriers among developed countries, which allowed for the rapid expansion of trade flows, a driving force of economic globalization. In Protection for Exporters, Andreas Dür provides a novel explanation for this phenomenon that stresses the role of societal interests in shaping trade politics. He argues that exporters lobby more in reaction to losses of foreign market access than in pursuit of opportunities, thus providing a rationale for periods of acceleration and slowdown in the pace of liberalization. Dür also presents hypotheses about the form in which protection for exporters is provided (preferential or nonpreferential) and the balance of concessions that is exchanged in trade negotiations.Protection for Exporters includes case studies of major developments in international trade relations, such as the passage of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in the 1930s, the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in the 1940s, the Kennedy Round in the 1960s, the debate over Fortress Europe in the 1980s, and U.S.-European competition over access to emerging markets in the early 2000s. Dür's rigorous argument and systematic empirical analyses not only explain transatlantic trade relations but also allow for a better understanding of the dynamics of international economic relations.

Negotiations are central to the ethos and functioning of the European Union, yet the dynamics of EU negotiations have received far too little systematic scholarly attention. This volume offers a thematic and forward-looking survey of cutting-edge research on EU negotiation dynamics, identifying findings to date and setting an empirical and methodological agenda for future research.The chapters by leading international experts address a wide range of critical questions in this area, including: What factors influence negotiation behaviour and outcomes in the EU? How can we explain variation in the choice of negotiation styles? When do actors engage in arguing or bargaining? What are the determinants of bargaining power? What are the institutional foundations of EU negotiations? And what role does the presidency play in EU negotiations? The volume also discusses how the findings of the multi-disciplinary field of ‘negotiation studies’ can inform research on negotiation dynamics in the EU.The volume will be of great interest to established scholars and advanced students of international relations, European integration and governance, and negotiation analysis.This book was based on a special issue of Journal of European Public Policy.

Is the EU a success or a failure?Should It Stay or Should It Go? Britain and the EUThe Big Waste or Essential to Feed Europe? The Common Agricultural PolicyObservers of the European Union could be forgiven in thinking that since its inception the EU project has been under threat from near constant crises. In recent years, controversial issues such as EU enlargement, the fallout from the Eurozone crisis, migration policies, Brexit and the Corona pandemic have tested the EU to its limits and divided public opinion in the process.The major third edition of this comprehensive textbook on the EU seeks to introduce the integration project by looking at the thorny debates politicians, European citizens and the media contend with on a daily basis. Well known for its unique and pedagogically-innovative key debates format, the editors have invited top names in the field to contribute a stirring contribution either ‘for’ or ‘against’ each of the toughest political questions the EU faces. In doing so, not only does it offer a broad introduction to all the key concerns of the Union, but it does so in a way that is contemporary, engaging and designed to spark controversy.New to this Edition:- All chapters fully revised and updatedNew chapter on the transatlantic partnership- All chapters now with key takeaway points - Across all controversies, more inclusion of mainstream gender and feminist approaches