ABSTRACT
With regard to the transition of post-communist countries, Roland (2002) notes that economists often refer to the transition of economies, even though far more than just the economy was subject to transformation. These countries had to create their institutions of democracy and governance, which, in turn, provided the foundation for interactions between interest groups and the state with a view to influencing public decisions. This chapter deals with these issues and discusses what we already know about the interactions between interest groups and the state in the V4 countries, including insights related to state capture, corruption, and lobbying in public policy processes. This chapter focuses on two different strategies which reflect the relationships between interest groups and the state based on Hirschman’s (1970) typology of exit and voice. The voice stands not only for interest group involvement in formalised public policymaking processes in the V4 countries, but also for state capture and corruption practices. The chapter looks at both – at the corrupt voice from bribe to state capture and at the non-corrupt voice through lobbying. It ends with concluding remarks on interest group dynamics and influence practices in the V4 countries, and offers a handful of suggestions regarding the focus of future research on this topic.
