Inclusiveness-Efficiency Configurations of Business Interest Associations with Access to Policymakers

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between business interest associations’ (BIAs’) governance configurations and their access to administrative officials and political heads of the European Union. We focus on how effective BIAs design their plenaries and boards to address the inclusiveness-efficiency tradeoff. By means of a qualitative comparative analysis, we find that most of the configurations related to administrative officials balance efficiency-inclusiveness tensions, one prioritizes inclusion while another focuses on efficiency. As for political heads, EU Commissioners seem to prioritize BIAs that successfully balance these contradictory poles while also paying attention to more inclusive BIAs.