Venue-Making

Abstract

Venue-making describes the process of turning political issues into political institutions. Both public policy and institutionalist scholars have addressed the puzzle of when and how new political institutions arise. We draw on both perspectives, arguing that the interaction between interest groups and government ultimately determines whether an issue remains within the existing institutional setting or if a new venue is made. A repeated stag hunt game illuminates the challenges of this interaction: interest groups and government need to coordinate the move from an old to a new venue by amplifying the issue and creating new institutional structures simultaneously. Because the switch from subsystem politics to venue-making is rewarding but also risky, several mechanisms, including signaling, sustained interaction, and inspection, encourage cooperation. Our research design provides an analysis of three case studies in a fixed institutional context of unified Germany. A first case process-traces how political issues about digitalization emerged and became institutionalized. A second, off-path case shows the short-lived attempt to centralize administrative competences in the domain of energy policy underscores the crucial role of interest groups. The third case explains the ultimately futile attempt to create a new Ministry of Immigration.