Whose Side Are You On? Explaining the Extent to which National Interest Groups Support States in Global Politics

This article builds on the growing literature on lobbying in a multilevel context. Whereas previous studies have sought to explain why national groups start lobbying at the transnational level, this articles examines the policy positions of interest groups once they are active at this level. The main argument is that group type is a key factor for explaining the level of interest group support for states, yet the effect of group type is conditional on the institutional and issue contexts. The data for analysis are derived from 198 interviews conducted with representatives from businesses and NGOs at the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization and the UN Climate Summit negotiations in 2011 and 2012. The results confirm that business groups support states much more often than NGOs do. Yet, the amount of support varies substantially across a country's level of development and democracy, and the salience of issues.