The determinants of corporate political activity in Australia

ABSTRACT

Large corporations in Australia have shifted from limited to more fulsome engagement in political activity (CPA) in recent decades. The paper argues that this reflects corporate institutional change in response to wider changes in the environment that have included growing government intervention, increased industry concentration and intra-sectoral competition, and a more complex and challenging discursive and issues environment. Quantitative and regression-based analysis of the drivers of CPA are employed and the analysis is extended and deepened with material drawn from interviews with twenty-five corporate government relations professionals.

澳大利亚的大公司以往只是有限涉足政治活动，而近几十年则是大举参与。本文指出，这反映了面对更大的环境变化——包括政府越来越多的干预、产业的日益集中、部门内竞争的加剧以及更复杂更具挑战的环境——公司体制做出的改变。我们对二十五位熟悉公司-政府关系的专业人士做了访谈，这有利于我们延展并深化对于公司政治参与动因所做的定量以及回归分析。

KEYWORDS:

• Government relations
• corporate political activity
• lobbying
• institutional change
• political influence

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the corporate interviewees who generously gave of their time, and to Geoff Allen for support and comments on the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. Several data sources are not publicly available due to containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under grant number DP20010052.

Notes on contributors

Stephen Bell

Stephen Bell is Professor of political economy in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland. Prior to joining UQ in 1999, he held positions at Griffith University, the University of New England, and the University of Tasmania, as well as a visiting position at the ANU and at the Copenhagen Business School. He served as Head of the School of Government at the University of Tasmania and has been Head of School at UQ. He is the author or editor of nine books and has published widely in leading national and international journals.

Andrew Hindmoor

Andrew Hindmoor completed a PhD at the London School of Economics in 1996. He has lectured at the London School of Economics, Durham University, the University of Exeter and the University of Queensland. He is Editor of the journal Political Studies and Associate Editor of the journal New Political Economy.

Nicholas Umashev

Nicholas Umashev is a current PhD candidate at the University of Queensland and has held research roles within both the School of Political Science and International Relations and the School of Economics at the University of Queensland.