Zeit/Ort: Donnerstag, 10. November, 14.00 – 15.30 Uhr, in Raum M 2.31
The article explores how macro-political factors in conjunction with micro-and meso-level factors affect interest group access to policymakers. The analysis is conducted based on two original data sets: a population ecology database of Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Slovenian national-level energy policy, healthcare, and higher education organizations, and an online survey of these populations. This allowed us to investigate both polity-, population-, and organizational-level factors. As the sampled countries have recently experienced democratic backsliding, we also test the effect of closing deliberative structures. The analysis reveals that the political process influences access: the relative importance of the legislature for interest groups and the level of legislative fractionalisation affect access positively, while the closure of deliberative structures has a negative effect. Nevertheless, the political contextual factors are mediated through variables both at the population and organizational levels, as well as interorganizational cooperation.