Lobbying Development in Post-Socialist Countries of the European Union: Comparative Analysis of Slovenian and Polish Models

In order to promote industrialization and improve the living standards of the population in the Sub-Current article is dedicated to lobbying development in post-socialist EU member states from Central andEastern Europe. This is an important and at the same time insufficiently studied aspect of political systems in CEE. Models of lobbying inSloveniaandPolandthat are analyzed in the article, demonstrate that there is no single vector of lobbying development in postsocialist countries. It is shown that interaction between interest groups and decision makers is influenced by following factors: dynamics and state of interest group systems, mechanism of interaction between interest groups and decision makers, Europeanization of politics, and particularities of lobbying regulation. Author comes to several conclusions: 1) Both countries have inherited tradition of informal political relations, but there is difference between corporatist model in Slovenia that resulted in more stable interest group system and Polish neoliberal model that gave birth to more conflict driven interest group system; 2) Europeanization of politics had different impact on the state of lobbying on national level, fostering its development in Slovenian case and having little impact in Poland; 3) Although majority of lobbying is happening in the executive branch, parties are the main mediators between interest groups and decision making; 4) Neither of analyzed countries are ideal in terms of lobbying regulation. However,Sloveniadid progress further in comparison withPoland, using more transparent registration and reporting for lobbyists and officials and also regulating indirect forms of lobbying; at the same time most of lobbying takes places in shadows while regulation aimed only at professional consultants is not efficient enough.

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