When and why high civil servants demand information from interest groups in policymaking. A Southern European perspective

Studying how public administrations proactively search for information from interest groups provides a new perspective for a better understanding of how bureaucratic policymaking works and how civil servants interact with interest groups. Building on data collected through an online survey submitted to approximately 700 high-level public servants in Greece, Italy and Portugal, this paper investigates whether and how organisational and individual policy analytical capacities (dis)incentivise top officials’ solicitation and use of information provided by interest groups in policymaking. The emerging evidence is counter-intuitive: those who seek information from interest groups most frequently are the most competent top officials in the least (individually perceived) competent areas of public administration. Thus, focusing on policy analytical capacities could be very useful for understanding administrative behaviour.