Lobbying in the European Union

Klüver sets a new standard methodologically by using state-of-the-art computer-assisted content analysis techniques to map the effect of interventions by interest groups on policy proposals in the European Union. Moving beyond previous approaches, she is able to ask familiar questions (can interest groups affect the policy process, and under what conditions?) but to answer them on a much larger scale because she makes use of large stores of documentary evidence to assess change in European Commission regulations from their initial proposal through the policy process to final formulation. She can then statistically assess which groups see the proposals move more in the direction they prefer. The work is therefore a tour-de-force of research methodology, setting new ground that future scholars will not be able to ignore. * Frank R. Baumgartner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *
Klüver's work is groundbreaking. Instead of avoiding the topic of interest group influence, as has been done for so long in interest group research, she takes it head-on. She develops an innovative measurement technique to quantify interest group and institutional positions with computer-assisted content analysis. While the approach is new, it is grounded in and validated by a large body of research that has used these techniques in the study of political parties. The result is not only important as it provides new insights into the nature of interest group influence, but the foundation of a new line of research methods on which other scholars can build. * Christine Mahoney, University of Virginia *
Lobbying in the European Union sets a new standard for rigorous scholarly analysis of the role of interest organizations in public policy. With its careful theoretical analysis, ambitious empirical research, and cutting edge measurement of that most illusive of concept, interest group influence, will be one of the most important works written on the politics of interest representation in the last two decades. It will be absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in either politics in Brussels or in the politics of organized interests more generally. * David Lowery, Pennsylvania State University *