The introduction of the German mandatory lobbying register on the national level in March 2021 marks an unexpected and substantial policy change after a 16-year-long debate about stricter transparency measures. Maximilian Schiffers (University of Duisburg-Essen) and Sandra Plümer (Bielefeld University) explore this sudden policy change in their new article titled Identifying Causal Mechanisms of Unexpected Policy Change: Accumulated Punctuation in the Field of Lobbying Transparency in Germany published in European Policy Analysis (EPA).

Within their article, Schiffers and Plümer discover that policy change is triggered by the shift in influence among the actors involved. In this context, they identify a combination of three mechanisms including the end of a de-thematization of the policy issue, growing dominance of the issue network favoring stricter transparency regulations, and issue validation through the accumulation of scandals. These findings of this case study contribute to a refined theoretical understanding of the causal mechanisms of policy change.

Article: Schiffers, M. & Plümer, S. (2024). Identifying causal mechanisms of unexpected policy change: Accumulated punctuation in the field of lobbying transparency in Germany. European Policy Analysis, early view https://doi.org/10.1002/epa2.1205.