A new and striking <i>Fusinus</i> (Gastropoda: Fasciolariidae) from Chile

A new species of Fasciolariidae is described from deep water off the Chilean coast. The shell and the radula of the new species are compared with Fusinus valdiviae Hadorn & Fraussen, 1999 and with some species of the buccinid genera Aeneator Finlay, 1927 and Bayerius Olsson, 1971

Four new <i>Euthria</i> (Gastropoda: Buccinidae) from the Cape Verde Archipelago

Four species, collected in the Cape Verde Islands, are described as new and assigned to the genus Euthria M.E. Gray, 1830: E. bernardi sp. nov., E. insalubris sp. nov., E. abrotona sp. nov. and E. cecilea sp. nov. The new species are compared with other taxa from the Mediterranean Sea and the Cape Verde Archipelago. We discuss the infraspecific variability of the genus and especially E. bernardi and E. cecilea

Who’s in and who’s out?: Explaining access to policymakers in Belgium

In most political systems, the community of policy insiders represents a small subset of the total interest group population. Therefore, one key question is which factors explain why some mobilized interests become insiders and others remain outsiders. By contrasting a bottom-up registration of interest groups with a top-down census of all groups that enjoy access to policymakers, we present a unique approach to distinguish insiders from outsiders. This approach allows us to systematically analyze which factors-such as resources, constituency, scale of organization and policy portfolio-predict who becomes a policy insider. Our analysis focuses on interest group politics in Belgium, and shows that next to resources, the size of the membership, the scale of organization and a group's policy portfolio are strong predictors of the likelihood to gain access

Euthria cecilea Fraussen & Rolán, 2003

Catálogo do Museo de Historia Natural USC. n. inventario 10023

Evidence from the European Commission: does it matter how policymakers consult external stakeholders?

Policymakers often consult a range of stakeholders, such as interest groups representing businesses or citizens, before they make decisions. But do the particular consultation tools used matter for the outcomes of this process? Drawing on a new study of the consultation tools used by the European Commission, Bert Fraussen, Adrià Albareda and Caelesta Braun suggests that despite the recent trend of using ‘open’ approaches such as online consultations, ‘closed’ consultation approaches in which policymakers play a more active role often offer a more promising approach for engaging a diverse set of actors

How political conflict affects the communication strategies of EU commissioners

Members of the European Commission often give media statements about Commission proposals. But what dictates the strategies used by commissioners when engaging with the media? Drawing on a new study, Moritz Müller, Caelesta Braun and Bert Fraussen show that the level of political conflict associated with a proposal has a significant impact on the way commissioners choose to discuss it

How higher education institutions seek to influence EU policymaking

EU education policies have an important impact on universities and other higher education institutions. For this reason, many higher education institutions have a stake in influencing EU policymakers. Drawing on a new study, Toine Paulissen, Bert Fraussen and Steven Van Hecke shed light on how higher education institutions lobby the EU’s institutions using individual and collective approaches to representation

The visible hand of the state : on the organizational development of interest groups

To understand dynamics within communities of organized interests, researchers have primarily studied organizational births and deaths. The organizational development of established interest organizations has received far less attention. This article claims that the evolution of interest groups' organizational features is strongly affected by evolving resource dependencies with the state. A life-history case study of an environmental interest organization is used to substantiate this argument empirically. The findings demonstrate that resource dependence relations with state actors critically shape organizational development, but that this dependence affects an organization's mission, structure, and strategy in different ways. This conclusion highlights the vital role of government patronage in the survival and maintenance of interest organizations.The politics and administration of institutional chang

Uitgelezen: Lobbyen in de Wetstraat

The politics and administration of institutional chang

The balancing act of establishing a policy agenda: Conceptualizing and measuring drivers of issue prioritization within interest groups

Interest groups are important intermediaries in Western democracies, with the potential to offer political linkage and form a bridge between the concerns of citizens and the agendas of political elites. While we know an increasing amount about the issue-based activity of groups, we only have a limited understanding about how they selected these issues to work on. In this article, we examine the process of agenda setting within groups. In particular, we address challenges of conceptualization and measurement. Through a thorough review of the group literature, we identify five main factors that are hypothesized to drive issue prioritization. We operationalize items to tap these factors and then empirically assess this theoretical model relying on data from a survey of national interest groups in Australia. Our findings, from a confirmatory factor analysis, provide support for the multidimensional nature of agenda setting. We discuss how this provides a firm conceptual and methodological foundation for future work examining how groups establish their policy agenda.The politics and administration of institutional chang