Lobbying in government administration in 2016–2023. Analysis of actors and their effectiveness

Abstract

Embedded in a neo-institutional perspective, the subject of the analysis presented in the article is the lobbying activities carried out by professional lobbyists against the government administration in 2016–2023. Its purpose is to characterize this activity, with particular emphasis on the quantitative dimension of the activities undertaken against individual ministries, their variation over time, as well as the number, nature and self-identification of the entities undertaking these activities and the assessment of their effectiveness. Answers to the above questions were obtained by analyzing the content of the public information bulletins of the surveyed ministries, as well as the websites and social media profiles of lobbying entities. The analysis yielded results making it possible to conclude that regulated lobbying of government administration by professional lobbyists in Poland is a sham. Over the seven years studied, there were only 146 cases of such activities, most of which were concentrated in three ministries. For more than 60% of entities, these activities were incidental. Their effectiveness was also relatively low, as only about 14% of the cases were completely successful. The negative public perception of lobbying also resulted in the fact that only 25% of the entities described themselves as lobbyists, and nearly half of them did not publicly report in any way on the conduct of such activities.