Replication Data for: Frederik Heylen & Evelien Willems (2019) Writing blank checks? How government funding affects interest organisations’ advocacy behaviour in a multi-layered context, Journal of European Public Policy, 26:6, 863-882, DOI: 10.1080/13501763.2018.1495250

This article analyses how government funding affects the interactions interest organisations initiate with governments in a multi-level context. Governments rarely write blank checks, but rather specify eligibility and spending requirements when funding interest organisations. Our primary argument is that these requirements do not only impact organisations’ interactions with their benefactors, but that they may also impact interactions with governments at other levels. We analyse this expectation drawing data from a recent survey of a representative sample of Belgian interest organisations. Our results demonstrate that organisations dependent on funding from the subnational and European level are less prone to interact with the national government. Whereas, organisations dependent on national government funding are not less likely to contact the subnational level of government. This variation is explained by the various ways these respective governments implement discretion.

本文探讨多层级治理语境下，政府资助如何影响利益组织（interest organisations）主动与政府开展互动的行为模式。政府极少提供无附加条件的资助，反而会在向利益组织拨付资助款时，明确设定资格准入条件与经费使用规范。本文核心论点为：此类资助要求不仅会影响组织与其资助方的互动关系，还可能波及组织与其他层级政府的互动。本研究依托针对比利时利益组织代表性样本的最新调研数据，对上述预期假设进行实证检验。研究结果显示：依赖次国家级与欧盟层级资助的组织，与国家级政府开展互动的概率显著更低。与之相对，依赖国家级政府资助的组织，与次国家级政府建立联系的概率并未出现显著下降。上述研究差异可通过各层级政府行使自由裁量权的差异化路径得到解释。