Lobby zemědělských firem v České republice

This master’s thesis examines lobbying in Czech agriculture as one of the mechanisms through which bargaining power is exercised in a highly regulated sector and a multi-level agricultural policy environment. The thesis aims to explain how actors from small, medium-sized, and large agricultural enterprises perceive and articulate their bargaining power in relation to national and European decision-making processes, how their interests, channels used, and thematic focus of lobbying differ, and what role professional organisations play in this process. The empirical part draws on eight semi-structured in-depth interviews with representatives of enterprises across size categories, professional organisations, and public administration. The findings are complemented by a document content analysis and illustrated through case studies of the redistributive payment and the regulation of unfair trading practices. The results suggest that small enterprises face substantial capacity and access barriers, and that their interest representation tends to be more local and ad hoc, often mediated by professional organisations. Large enterprises, by contrast, more frequently rely on professionalised resources, combine direct institutional contacts with data-based argumentation, and operate at both national and European levels. Professional organisations appear as key intermediaries and, at the same time, as arenas of aggregation and compromise, with their capacity and representativeness constrained by the heterogeneity of members’ interests.