Interest Groups and Lobbying

A course aimed at giving analytical, methodological and empirical skills for knowledge, understanding and analysis of representative systems of the business interest associations and strategies of policy pressure facing with the government, from a multilevel approach concerning with both Italian political system and European Union. After a primer introduction to the main theoretical models for the analysis of the business interests representation (neocorporatist and pluralistic), the course will be focused on the relationships among business interest associations, interest groups, lobbies and the government, in both Italian and European institutional policy making context. Paying particular attention on the disintermediation processes occuring in the political and business interest representation arenas, as a consequence of the digital revolution, the course will be also focused on the strategic solutions through which business interest associations are seeking to get back a role in policy making and in the relationship with the government. Several Italian and European case studies will be examined to outline the evolutionary landscape of the new way of representation, looking for some cut edge solutions.

- Knowledge and Understanding: at the end of the course, the student will have got a set of analytical and methodological skills, as well as empirical knowledge, on the representation systems of the business interest associations, the policy pressure and lobbying strategies, in a multilevel perspective, so that he should be able to analyze and understand the dynamics of representation and advocacy acting within both the Italian political system and the European Union.
- Applying Knowledge and Learning Skills: the course toolkit should allow the student to make analysis by himself of a representation system of business interest associations, identifying the strategies implemented by associations, interest groups and lobbies to influence the government. In addition, the student should become able to outline the essential elements of a strategic plan for the advocacy of a social category's interest within a given representation arena.
- Communication Skills: the presentation and discussion of case studies in the classroom, should allow the student learning to communicate the contents and the results of the analysis of a certain representation arena, with reference to its actors and strategies, to several interlocutors, specialists and non-specialists ones.