Writing blank checks? How government funding affects interest organisations’ advocacy behaviour in a multi-layered context

Abstract:

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.