My research aims to generate insights that advance the professionalization and democratization of European public affairs. Professionalization involves public affairs grounded in scientific insights, underpinned by clear ethical principles, and focused on providing accurate, evidence-based information to optimize responsible governance. Democratization, I believe, refers to an inclusive approach that amplifies diverse societal interests and voices, ensuring that underrepresented groups are strengthened, while fostering a deeper connection between society and the state.
To achieve this, I study the dynamic relationship between citizens, lobby groups, and policymakers. I explore whether, when, and how the policy preferences of European citizens are translated into EU policy outcomes, and whether citizens see themselves reflected in policy elites in terms of shared traits and characteristics. My research is evidence-based, drawing on political methodology with a strong focus on quantitative analysis. I investigate lobbying strategies, information flow, and sources of policy influence, with particular emphasis on uncovering patterns of biased representation and systematic inequality that disadvantage certain interests and demographic groups.
My ongoing projects address critical societal challenges, including the link between money and lobbying influence, the role of social media in advocacy, and how EU policy may be biased in favor of socioeconomically privileged groups. I currently lead the ACCESS4ALL project, which examines how sociodemographic characteristics such as gender, national background, and education of lobbyists affect their access to EU policymakers.
My work is widely published in academic journals and popular outlets. You can find a list of my academic publications below. My blogs and news media contributions are listed on a separate page.
An overview of publications:
Subject: This study investigates the potential role of civil society mobilisation in addressing the underrepresentation of low-SES groups. It hypothesises that greater civil society engagement on policy issues increases the congruence of elected representatives’ positions with the views of low-SES citizens. To test this, statements made by elected representatives in eight European news outlets on 13 EU policy issues were analysed, alongside expert surveys and Eurobarometer polls. The findings demonstrate a positive association between civil society mobilisation and the congruence of representatives with the concerns of low-SES citizens. This effect is consistent across various policy areas and ideological affiliations, underscoring the crucial role of civil society in promoting democratic governance within the EU.
Subject: This article focuses on the access that interest groups secure to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). It examines whether and how interest group access is influenced by the socio-demographic characteristics of lobbying teams and politicians, including gender and national origin. Guided by similarity attraction theory, the study hypothesises that interest groups staffed by lobbyists from underprivileged socio-demographic backgrounds (i.e., women, Central and Eastern European, or non-EU origin) are less likely to secure access to MEPs. However, it suggests that MEPs from similar backgrounds are less susceptible to such biases. To test these expectations, the study utilises a combination of door pass data to the European Parliament, reported meetings on the European Parliament’s website, and desk research. The results show that lobbying teams with a balanced gender composition are more likely to secure access to MEPs, and that similarities in gender and national origin facilitate interactions between MEPs and lobbying teams. The study offers valuable insights into the inclusiveness and socio-demographic biases within EU public affairs.
De Bruycker, I (2024). To Praise or Pressure? Patterns of Social Media Advocacy in Times of COVID-19
Subject: This article explores how interest groups harness social media as a tool for either praising or pressuring their government. The article argues that the positioning of interest groups on social media is driven by the political and policy opportunity structures in which they operate. Empirically, the article relies on an analysis of 3,897 hand-coded X-posts from prominent hospitality associations in nine Western democracies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings demonstrate that interest groups tend to employ pressure tactics when real-world conditions are advantageous to their cause, while turning to praise when favorable government policies are adopted.
Subject: This paper evaluates whether lobbying influence is open to the highest bidder or boosted by congruence with popular opinion. Common wisdom holds that well-endowed organizations prevail in lobbying battles. This perception contrasts with recent observations, which point to the decisive role of public opinion. This paper unites these seemingly contrasting stances by arguing that both economic resources and congruence with public opinion are paramount for lobbying influence. We demonstrate that interest groups with more economic resources are generally more influential, but only if their policy positions are congruent with a public majority.
Subject: This article analyses which interest groups lobby on EU climate policies and under which conditions these groups achieve their policy goals. Economic resources give groups the capacity to mobilise expertise, but an interest group’s success also depends on its congruence with public opinion, especially in a politicised area such as EU climate policy. Our results show that interest groups with higher economic resources and with public opinion on their side are more likely to achieve their preferences on EU climate policy issues.
Subject: This article conceives of populist communication as a contextually dependent political strategy. We bridge actor- and communication-centered approaches by arguing that the context of issues conditions the extent to which parties employ populist communication. Our findings show that populist parties are more prone to express populism on salient and polarized issues. Issues important to civil society groups, in contrast, make non-populist parties more inclined to express such communication.
Subject: This article examines the role of interest mobilization in strengthening or weakening congruence between elected representatives and citizens on EU policy issues. It argues that the relationship between public opinion, interest groups and elected politicians can be theorized as a selective transmission process.
Subject: This paper evaluates the circumstances under which affluent interest groups wield influence over policy outcomes. Our empirical findings demonstrate that economic resources matter for lobbying influence, but that their effect is conditional on the media salience of policy issues.
Subject: This study examines the information demands of decision-makers from across the globe in their exchanges with interest organizations. It proposes two explanatory factors that drive these information demands: democracy and development. Our findings demonstrate that decision-makers from less developed countries exhibit a higher preference for interactions with organizations that provide them with technical information. Decision-makers from democratically accountable countries, by contrast, tend to place relatively greater value on political information provided by interest groups.
Subject: This article asks to what extent and under which conditions interest groups are congruent with public opinion. The results demonstrate that citizen groups with formal members are more prone to share the position of the broader public compared to concentrated interest groups such as business associations, especially if they involve their members in advocacy activities and when issues are salient in the media.
Subject: This article examines the thermostatic responsiveness of EU public policy. It inquires into the conditions under which EU policy decisions are responsive to wavering public demands for policy change and how European citizens in turn respond to policy change.
Subject: Advocacy is typically conceived of as an activity where advocacy groups seek and policymakers grant influence. In this paper, we turn the classic approach to advocacy upside down and ask under what conditions policymakers seek to exert influence on the positions adopted by opposing or allied advocacy groups.
Subject: Olson’s logic of collective action predicts that business interest associations face fewer collective action problems than citizen action groups. This article challenges this assumption by arguing that forming an organization comes with different collective action problems than voicing a joint policy position.
Subject: Whether interest groups should prioritize inside or outside lobbying tactics in order to materialize their policy objectives, with a specific focus on European Union legislative policymaking; demonstrates that outside lobbying is not inherently more or less successful than inside lobbying.
Subject: Whether and under what circumstances a presence in news media debates helps advocacy groups to achieve their policy goals in European Union (EU) legislative politics.
Subject: Patterns of mobilization and conflict of interest groups’ activity in EU legislative policymaking. Unique policy-centred research design and an empirical assessment of policy mobilization for a sample of 125 EU legislative proposals based on extensive media coding as well as structured elite interviews.
Subject: Conditions under which political elites involved in EU legislative procedures address public interests in the news.
Subject: Formation of lobbying coalitions in European Union legislative politics, whether interest organizations establish coalitions and under which conditions business interests and non-business interests join a coalition.
Subject: Which party groups in the European Parliament are prioritized by EU lobbyists and why. Focus is on two presumed key components of this prioritization process, namely power and position.
Subject: Overview of recent work on interest group framing with some key issues that interest group scholars face when they undertake research on framing.
Subject: Use of inside and outside lobbying by organised interests at global diplomatic conferences.
Subject: Dominant expertise‐based exchanges in interactions with civil servants, with political information predominantly communicated to political officials and often key substance in outside lobbying tactics.
Subject: Coverage of legislative lobbying in European news media. Lobbying in the crowded European Union (EU)-level interest community is not only a struggle for direct access to policymakers, interest groups rather rely on political attention generated by the media.
Subject: By analyzing the context of EU legislative lobbying in relation to 54 legislative acts we demonstrate in this article that, in particular on controversial cases, the alignment of parties and interests groups reflects party political cleavages.
Subject: How a link between the party and the issue gets established through the media.
Subject: Practice and method of expert interviewing in research projects on interest group politics.
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