“Post-truth post-communism?” – Information-oriented lobbying in the context of democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe

This article explores how democratic backsliding affects the value of expertise provision for interest groups in influencing policymaking. The analysis is conducted on an original survey of Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Slovenian energy, healthcare, and higher education interest groups active at the national level. All four countries experienced varying degrees and forms of populism and democratic backsliding in the past decade. Yet effective governance in all three policy fields still requires expert knowledge. We find that de-democratization affects expertise provision negatively, indeed, but not uniformly: the stronger the backsliding, the more a close relationship with governing parties matters for sharing expertise. Yet even in the context of de-democratization, participation in parliamentary hearings/committees is of pivotal importance for expertise provision. Moreover, intergroup cooperation is an important signal for expertise exchange: organizations with EU umbrella membership and active domestic networking activities attribute significantly higher importance to expertise in influencing policy than groups lacking these assets.

本文探讨民主倒退（democratic backsliding）如何影响利益集团在政策制定游说中所依托的专业知识供给价值。本分析基于一项原创性调研，调研对象为活跃于国家层面的捷克、匈牙利、波兰、斯洛文尼亚四国的能源、医疗与高等教育领域利益集团。过去十年间，上述四国均出现了不同程度、不同形式的民粹主义与民主倒退现象。尽管如此，上述三大政策领域的有效治理仍离不开专业知识的支撑。研究发现，逆民主化确实会对专业知识供给产生负面影响，但这种影响并非一概而论：民主倒退程度越深，利益集团与执政党的紧密关系对其提供专业知识的重要性就愈发凸显。即便处于逆民主化的语境中，参与议会听证会/委员会仍对专业知识供给具有关键意义。此外，集团间合作是专业知识交流的重要表征：拥有欧盟伞形组织成员身份且积极开展国内网络活动的利益集团，相较于缺乏此类资源的同类组织，会将专业知识在政策游说中的重要性评价显著更高。