Litigation: a strategy of advocacy? Evidence from a survey among organized interests in Germany

Abstract Legal mobilization and litigation have long been acknowledged as a distinct form of interest group politics. However, organized interests vary in their internal organization, the importance they attach to legal action, and the goals they seek to achieve with legal strategies. This paper analyzes litigation activity of organized interests in Germany. It makes use of novel data collected from an organizational survey that includes firms as actors of legal mobilization. The data reveal considerable differences across types of organizations in terms of litigation activity. Among the organizational characteristics that have a bearing on the frequency of litigation, endowment with legal human resources and the membership structure emerge as significant predictors. Conversely, we find no evidence that organizations with more financial resources litigate more frequently.