Cover Page
The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/92367 holds various files of this Leiden University
dissertation.
Author:
Romeijn, J.
Title: What’s the issue? : the lobbying and representativeness of political parties on
specific policy issues
What’s the issue?
The lobbying and representativeness of political parties on specific policy issues
What’s the issue?
The lobbying and representativeness of political parties on specific policy issues Proefschrift
ter verkrijging van
de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker,
volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op dinsdag 2 juni 2020 klokke 16:15 uur
door Jeroen Romeijn Geboren te Quito,
PromoTor
Prof. dr. A. Rasmussen (Leiden University & University of Copenhagen)
Co-promotor
Dr. D.D. Toshkov (Leiden University)
Doctorate committee
Prof. dr. E.H. Allern (University of Oslo) Prof. dr. S.M. Groeneveld (Leiden University) Dr. T.P. Louwerse (Leiden University) Prof. mr. dr. E.R. Müller (Leiden University) Prof. dr. A. Timmermans (Leiden University)
ACknoWleDgemenTs
A good friend once told me: “It’s just 150 pages and you have four years to write them, how hard can it be?” Well, hard enough that there are more people to thank than I have the space to mention, including the aforementioned friend who re minded me to keep thinking about the final product: the book in front of you.
First of all, I am grateful to my parents Paul and Dineke, Elske, Stef and my grand-mother Manske, who in addition to all her support kept me grounded by remarking I was pursuing a PhD in “weet-niet-kunde”.
My thanks go to the entire GovLis-family, but especially to my fellow PhD students Linda and Wiebke. Thank you for many great memories, laughter, long hours of peering over datasets and scripts, many great trips and even more great, often Lebanese, food. And, of course, my supervisors, Anne and Dimiter, to whom I am grateful for their sup-port, journeys to conferences and Texas, as well as many rounds of feedback combined with unwavering faith in my academic abilities. My thanks also go out to the members of the committee for their time and constructive comments.
Doing this degree gave me the opportunity to get to know and work with many great colleagues. Firstly at the institute of Public Administration, where Daniëlle, Eduard, Marieke, Machiel, Wout, Mark, Wout, Bernard, Adrìa, Moritz, Erin, Emily, Samir, Bert and Caelesta were among many with whom I enjoyed discussions, coffee and beers. There is also the “interest group family”: a welcoming coalition of strange bed fellows consisting of pyjama elfs and many others: thank you. Thirdly, I would like to thank my new col-leagues at the Ministry for their warm welcome and putting up with my long-winded excitement over normal distributions.
Saskia, Nienke, Tobey, Kirsten, Tim, Joep, Bratwurstbende and many others: thank you for your friendship and sharing all the highs and lows of this process, your sup-port, advice and willingness to always listen (for ages), whether in the Hague, Bemmel, Budapest, Scotland, Japan, Mali, or simply over the phone.
Finally, and most importantly, thank you Nick. Your love, (nearly) endless patience and lompe opmerkingen make me happier, laugh more and have taught me to like the man I am. No one knows where and who I (and this dissertation) would be without you, but I am for sure happier thanks to you.
TAble of ConTenTs
Chapter 1 Introduction 11
1.1 Introduction 13
1.2 Political parties as representatives of public preferences 15 1.3 (Limitations to) existing studies of the representative role
and capacity of political parties
16 1.4 The benefits of adding the study of specific policy issues to
the study of political parties
18 1.5 Interest groups as alternatives for political parties 20 1.6 The policy impact of ties between interest groups and
political parties
22 1.7 Methodological approach 26 1.8 Overview and outlook 29
Chapter 2 Do political parties listen to the(ir) public? Public opinion-party linkage on specific policy issues
33
2.1 Introduction 35
2.2 Policy outcomes and representation of the public 36 2.3 Political parties and representation of the public 37 2.4 Theorizing the positions of political parties on specific
policy issues
38
2.5 Research design 40
2.6 Analysis 46
2.7 Conclusion 50
Chapter 3 Dynamics of Regulatory Policymaking in Sweden: The Role of Media Advocacy and Public Opinion
53
3.1 Introduction 55
3.2 Public opinion and interest groups as drivers of public policy
57 3.3 The hypothesized effects of public support and media
advocacy on political attention and policy change
59
3.4 Research design 61
3.5 Empirical analyses 64
Chapter 4 Party Collaboration as a Route to Advocacy Success? The Decision of Whom to Lobby
79
4.1 Introduction 81
4.2 Group-party linkage in existing research 83 4.3 Theoretical framework: The benefits for organized interests
of working with political parties
84 4.3 Research design 88 4.4 Measuring the independent variables 90 4.5 Analysis and results 94
4.6 Conclusion 98
Chapter 5 Lobbying during government formations: Do policy advocates attain their preferences in coalition agreements?
103
5.1 Introduction 105
5.2 Coalition agreements and their appeal to lobbyists 107 5.3 Lobbying coalition agreement negotiations 108 5.4 Case selection and research design 111 5.5 Analysis and results 117
5.6 Conclusion 121
Chapter 6 Conclusion 125
6.1 Introduction and conclusions per chapter 127 6.2 Broader conclusions 130 6.3 Limitations and future research 134 6.4 Concluding remarks 137
Bibliography 139
Appendix 155
Dutch Summary 207
