Lobbying in tempi difficili

This special issue is concerned with the study of interest groups in Italy, focusing on their roles in policy-making and on how lobbying varies throughout the policy cycle. This introductory essay illustrates the common analytical framework followed by all contributions to the special issue, which reconstruct five policy processes in the period of the so-called disintermediation (Renzi cabinet 2015-2016) between policymakers and interest groups in Italy. It combines politics and policy factors using the policy cycle as the main tool of analysis. The contingency of configurations in the interplay between cabinets and interest groups emerges as a common and dynamic trend: groups are resilient and able to adapt to the uncertainty and variability of the policy context, while cabinets – during their life cycles – need the resources of groups throughout the policy cycle.