The contribution of interest groups to the drafting of laws and regulations. The example of industrial risk prevention

This article examines the lobbying activities of industry representatives in the discreet arenas where laws and regulations relating to industrial risk prevention are developed. Based on empirical observations conducted between 2002 and 2015, as part of the reform initiated following the AZF disaster in 2001, the analysis focuses successively on three little-documented aspects of industrial lobbying: the ongoing work of coordinating the interests represented, the variety of ways in which representatives of these interests are brought together in normative production spaces, and finally, the socialisation effects resulting from the interactions of these representatives with other stakeholders in the law and regulation-making process. Ultimately, this immersion in the discreet arenas of normative production reveals a rather unexpected facet of industrial lobbying that contrasts sharply with analyses that focus more on the influence of these dominant actors.