Interest groups in post-socialist Central Europe: a comparative analysis of historical, political, economic and cultural changes

This study day will take place on April 7, 2026 at Inalco - Maison de la Recherche (2, rue de Lille - Paris 7e) - Auditorium Dumézil.
Une poignée de main entre une femme et un homme avec en arrière plan deux personnes
Des entrepreneurs d'affaires se serrant la main dans une salle de réunion © Image créée avec l'IA de Google‎

In 2024, Ukraine adopted a law on lobbying in order to meet the requirements of the European Union as part of its accession process, which aims in particular to promote a culture of transparent lobbying. These rapidly evolving practices in Central Europe are at the heart of renewed research into the various links between political and administrative actors and private actors: what is the current state of knowledge? This study day aims to bring together young researchers in the humanities and social sciences working on interest groups, their actors, practices and networks, as well as attempts to regulate their activities in post-socialist Europe. It will also be an opportunity to compare different disciplinary approaches to the question of the influence of private actors in politics and to question the relevance of the "lobbying" prism, its added value and its effects on the perspectives adopted in studies on this subject.

In the 2000s, the field of studies on interest groups and lobbying was still considered, in the words of Jan Beyers et al. (2008), as "balkanised" due to its fragmentation and the heterogeneity of definitions and empirical studies on the subject: Michel Offerlé already highlighted these difficulties in 1994 in Sociologie des groupes d'intérêt. Conceptualisation efforts have led to a common understanding of interest groups as "representative (re)groupings, whether permanent or temporary, whose spokespersons act to promote, primarily or incidentally, the defence of social interests of any kind" (Offerlé 2020). Lobbying is thus "a concerted effort [by interest groups] to influence the formulation and taking of political decisions with a view to obtaining certain results from government departments and elected representatives" (European Commission White Paper 2001, in Defacqz Koutroubas 2021), which is part of the political activity of private actors (Vargovčíková 2018). This study day will continue to examine the terminology used to describe and analyse these practices in the context of Central and Eastern Europe.

In Ukraine, as in other post-socialist countries in Central Europe1, changes in interest groups, their objectives and their modes of action have been observable since 1989. The emergence of new non-state actors (companies, associations, political parties, trade unions, religious institutions, etc.) has contributed to reconfiguring the roles, powers and positions of public actors in the economic, political, legal, social and religious spheres.

The years following 1989 were particularly conducive to the development of lobbying by foreign transnational corporations. The economic systems of post-socialist Central Europe rapidly evolved into dependent market economies (Nölke Vliegenthart 2009): these companies deployed various strategies to influence the political, executive and legislative spheres, which often resulted in economic advantages.

In this context, certain groups have also emerged that are not only seeking material gains, but also seeking to redefine the value system of Central European societies, such as NGOs, professional associations and religious groups: the de-privatisation of the religious sphere in Poland, for example, has enabled certain Catholic organisations to develop their legislative lobbying activities and acquire institutional and tax advantages. Research on these topics is still fragmented.

The prospects for European Union enlargement and the subsequent integration of many post-socialist Central European countries in 2004 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia), in 2007 (Romania and Bulgaria) and in 2013 (Croatia) has encouraged the publication of numerous academic works on lobbying (Hrebenar Mcbeth Morgan 2008, McGrath 2008, Saurugger 2003, Pérez-Solórzano 2001). This integration process has also enabled these groups to defend their interests within the institutions of the European Union, which are among the most important venues in the world for lobbying, representing private interests to public actors and building the networks that are essential for exercising influence, either formally or informally (Baranova et al. 2021, Greenwood 2017, Landgraf et al. 2015, Coen Richardson 2009, Obradović Pleines 2007, Bouwen 2004). Efforts have been made to integrate and adapt to EU standards, regulations, institutions and procedures: this Europeanisation has particularly affected interest groups and lobbyists in Central Europe, who have adjusted their cultures, habits and repertoires of action to this context. This phenomenon has been analysed from the perspective of the Europeanisation of interest groups and continues to attract the interest of researchers (Dobbins Riedel 2021, Lajh Novak 2024, Vidačak 2024, Czarnecki Riedel 2020, Cecik 2017, Fink-Hafner Hafner-Fink Novak 2015, Cianciara 2013, Dvořáková 2013, Charrad 2010, Pérez-Solórzano 2001). However, while accession has helped to broaden the repertoire of action available to interest groups in the context of the transformation of states since the 1990s, it has also given certain illicit actors the means to make use of legal knowledge and helped political and economic actors to perfect their skills in circumventing rules or capturing funds (Vasvári 2022, Ragaru 2009). It will therefore also be necessary to examine the legal limits of lobbying and its links with corruption, conflicts of interest and clientelism (Briquet 2020, Lascoumes 2011).

In a region marked by regime change, the question of the relationship between the activity of interest groups and democracy has inevitably arisen. The activity of interest groups in a political system has long been naturally considered, based on Anglo-Saxon concepts and contexts, as a sign of democratic participation by citizens in political decision-making through non-state organisations that represent countervailing powers. However, this intrinsic contribution of interest groups to democracy is debated in recent works on post-socialist Central Europe, which highlight the plurality of factors promoting the democratisation of societies (Rozbicka 2023, Komar Novak 2020, Komar 2019, Orlović 2019, Evanson 2008).

Furthermore, the transformation of the relationships between these private and public actors and the upheaval of their new practices has called into question the democratic and legal frameworks that enable these relationships. With the integration of lobbying into the repertoires of action of many non-state actors, "lobbying" has been constructed as a problem and subject to intervention by public authorities, raising the question of its legal regulation. In this context, numerous studies have been conducted on the processes of regulating lobbying in this region (Bálint 2022, Chorna et al. 2022, Laboutková et al. 2020, Vargovčiková 2018, Vnoučková Žák 2017, Coman 2006): although Central European countries have adopted regulations, these do not always guide the practices of actors.

Within this general framework, the study day will aim to explore three areas of research, without being strictly limited to them:

1. The historical and institutional dynamics of the emergence and development of interest groups

The aim will be to analyse the systemic, political and economic factors that have contributed to the rise of interest groups in the post-socialist space.

What types of actors have established themselves as key intermediaries between the private sphere and political power? How have institutional transformations (privatisation, legislative reforms, market liberalisation) shaped these relationships of influence? How can we describe and analyse the activities of interest groups today in the context of the transformation of states whose boundaries between the public and private spheres and actors are becoming increasingly porous (Hibou 2012)? How do these analyses contribute to the renewal of the sociology of the state?

2. Interest groups and democracy

This theme will examine the ambivalence of the relationship between interest groups and democracy in Central Europe.

Do the lobbying activities of non-state actors, as members of civil society or defenders of private economic interests, make these interest groups agents of democratisation or, on the contrary, do they represent a threat to democracy? What are the effects of their practices on democratic institutions? How do these actors influence public decision- making processes? To what extent can they pose a threat to transparency, political equality or popular sovereignty? What strategies have been put in place to control or circumvent the rules? How significant are external constraints, whether European or international, in the process of regulating lobbying through legislation or infra- legislative rules?

3. The international dimensions of lobbying in Central Europe

This last area will examine the transnational influence activities of interest groups in Central Europe, the circulation of lobbying practices in Europe, and the influence of external actors in the countries of the region.

The fall of the Iron Curtain opened up Eastern European economies to Western actors: we will examine the role of these foreign economic actors in the processes of economic and political restructuring. We will also consider how these dynamics are perceived locally: integration, dispossession, or strategic restructuring? In addition, we will study the activities of Central European interest groups abroad, the networks they belong to, and the causes they defend.

Finally, we will examine the circulation of public and private actors and their practices through Europeanisation and its feedback effects (Ragaru 2008).

 

Practical details

Proposals for papers (2,000 characters in French or English) should be sent by email to the organisers (View e-mail View e-mail View e-mail) by 24 November 2025. They should specify the issue, the sources used, the research approach and a preliminary bibliography. Proposals must be accompanied by a CV of no more than two pages. Presentations will last approximately 20 minutes, in French or in English. Responses will be communicated before 17 January 2026.

The organisers will cover accommodation and travel expenses as far as possible.

 

Organisers and partners

  • Inalco / CREE (Centre de recherche Europes-Eurasie)
  • Polish Academy of Sciences
  • Free University of Brussels

 

Organising committee

  • Sarah Bomba (Inalco, CREE)
  • Jelena Jokić (Inalco, CREE)
  • Lucie Raskin (Inalco, CREE)

 

Scientific Committee

  • Jean-Louis Briquet (CNRS, CESSP)
  • Anne Madelain (Inalco, CREE)
  • Jana Vargovčíková (Inalco, CREE)
  • Nadège Ragaru (Sciences Po, CERI)
  • Jana Vargovčíková (Inalco, CREE)
  • Jean-Michel De Waele (Free University of Brussels, Cevipol)

 

Works cited:

  • BARANOVA Olena, BURYK Zoriana, MAMONTOVA Ella, STRIKHA Liudmyla, VONSOVYCH Sergiy and VOROPAYEVA Tatiana, "Modern Experience of Lobbying Interests in Europe," Studies of Applied Economics, 39, no. 8, September 2021, https://doi.org/10.25115/eea.v39i8.6203.
  • BEYERS Jan, EINSING Rainer, MALONEY William, "Researching Interest Group Politics in Europe and Elsewhere: Much We Study, Little We Know?", West European Politics, 31(6), 2008, pp. 1103–1128, https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380802370443.
  • BOUWEN Pieter, “Exchanging access goods for access: A comparative study of business lobbying in the European Union institutions”, European Journal of Political Research, 43, no. 3, May 2004, pp. 337-69, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2004.00157.x.
  • BRIQUET Jean-Louis, "The links between clientelism and corruption. A typology of illicit configurations of political power", Revue française d'administration publique, 2020/3, no. 175, 2020, pp. 629-644.
  • CECIK Aneta, "Adapting to Europe? Business interests and civil society groups in accession countries", West European Politics, 40, no. 5, September 2017, pp. 1066-87, https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2017.1308696.
  • CIANCIARA Agnieszka K., "Polish Business Lobbying in the EU 2004–2009: Examining the Patterns of Influence", Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 14(1), pp. 63–79, 2013. CHARRAD Kristina, Participants or Observers in European Governance? Civil Society Lobbyists from Central and Eastern Europe in Brussels, Baden-Baden, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, coll. "European Civil Society", 4, 2010.
  • CHORNA Viktoria, KUZMENKO Oksana RYNDIUK Vira, SHARKOVA Irina, "Legal institute of lobbying: the problem of legislative regulation in Ukraine", Revista Amazonia Investiga, 11, no. 53, July 2022, pp. 186-93, https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.53.05.18.
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  • HIBOU Béatrice, La bureaucratisation du monde à l'ère néolibérale, Paris, La Découverte, series: "Cahiers libres", 2012, 223 p.
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  • KOMAR Olivera, "The development of an interest group system in a constrained democracy: Montenegro”, Journal of Public Affairs, 19, no. 2, May 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1722.
  • KOMAR Olivera, NOVAK Meta, "The organisational development of interest groups in Montenegro and Slovenia: Do they contribute to more inclusive democracy?", Politics in Central Europe, 16, no. 3, December 2020, pp. 647-65, https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2020-0029.
  • KOVÁCS Bálint, "Between Anti-corruption and Access to the Legislative Process: A Glimpse into Lobbying Regulation in East Central Europe", Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Legal Studies, 11, no. 1, June 2022, pp. 47-67, https://doi.org/10.47745/AUSLEG.2022.11.1.03.
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  • LANDGRAF Christin, FISCHER Sabine, PLEINES Heiko, SCHRÖDER Hans-Henning (eds.), Interest Representation and Europeanisation of Trade Unions from EU Member States of the Eastern Enlargement, Hannover, ibidem, 2015.
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  • RAGARU Nadège, "Uses and instituting force of the anti-corruption struggle in Bulgaria: the Toplofikacija affair", Law and Society: International Journal of Legal Theory and Sociology, 2009, 72 (2), pp. 303-323.
  • RAGARU Nadège, "The river and the pebbles. European enlargement and Europeanisation in Central and Eastern Europe", François BAFOIL and Timm BEICHELT (eds.), L'européanisation d'Ouest en Est, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2008, pp. 241-283
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  • VARGOVČÍKOVÁ Jana, Les modes de la légitimation du lobbying en Europe centrale et ses ambivalences : négociant la frontière symbolique entre la sphère publique et la sphère privée en Pologne et en République tchèque (1990-2016) [Ways of legitimising lobbying in Central Europe and its ambivalences: negotiating the symbolic boundary between the public and private spheres in Poland and the Czech Republic (1990-2016)], Paris 10 and Univerzita Karlova, 2018.
  • VASVÁRI Tamás, "Beneficiaries and cost bearers: evidence on political clientelism from Hungary", Local Government Studies, 48, no. 1, 2 January 2022, pp. 150-77, https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2020.1768852.
  • VIDAČAK Igor, "Unlocking Influence: Access and Lobbying Strategies of Croatian Interest Groups in the EU Policymaking”, Crisis Era European Integration,1st ed., London, Routledge, 2024, pp. 38-55, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003394013-3.
  • VNOUČKOVÁ Lucie, ŽÁK Milan, "Transparency in Lobbying as Perceived by Organisational Representatives in the Czech Republic”, Review of Economic Perspectives, 17, no. 4, 20 December 2017, pp. 381-97, https://doi.org/10.1515/revecp-2017-0020.