The main objective of these lectures is to discuss, with the help of some basic models, the interactions of lobbying activities and legislative decision making. Lobbying will be described as a game of influence with the lobbies and the legislators as the players. We will review some of the literature and proceed to a more detailed analysis of a popular game due to Groseclose and Snyder (1996) and further explored by Banks, Diermeier and Myerson. The method will be illustrated with a sample of real worl examples. In the final part, we would like to sort out the lessons learned from this theory to suggest a new approach to power measurement and sketch an application to the case of the EU council of ministers.

Presentation part 1 - part 2