Political Judgment Above Transparency? Results From a Mixed Method Study About Politicians' Close Cooperation With Interest Organizations

Abstract

In what ways, if at all, does transparency influence how politicians cooperate with interest organizations? While there are convincing normative arguments stressing the importance of transparency in politics, empirical evidence for how transparency in practice affects how politicians reason regarding cooperating with interest organizations is scarce. In this article, I address this gap by conducting a mixed method survey experiment with 1659 Swedish politicians. The findings indicate that a lack of transparency, as explored in this study, diminishes politicians' willingness to closely cooperate with interest organizations by submitting policy proposals drafted by these organizations. However, the central concern for most politicians, in both the transparent and untransparent conditions, was whether they had exercised independent political judgment rather than blindly accepted the interest organization's suggestion. These results contribute to the literature by showing how a specific form of transparency influences cooperation between politicians and interest groups, while also offering theoretical insights into the critical role of political judgment in this cooperation.