Interest Groups And Agenda Setting: How Do Groups Decide on Priorities – And Do They Shape or Follow the Government Agenda?

Abstract

What is the role and impact of interest groups in setting the government agenda? And how do interest groups determine which issues to focus on? A collective action perspective would predict that the groups most likely to be represented will have concentrated economic interests or intensely held beliefs, resulting in policies at odds with public opinion. On the other hand, these interests often focus on narrow issues of limited interest to the wider public. To date, we do not know to what extent a subset of organized groups might shape the public agenda. Furthermore, we know little about the degree of correspondence between the political preferences of interest groups and those of the public. To analyze the circumstances under which specific types of groups and citizens find their issues represented before government, the papers in this panel will focus on policy agendas. Some papers will assess the degree of congruence between the concerns of citizens, the policy agendas of interest groups, and the policy priorities of national governments. Others will investigate the efforts and ability of interest groups to represent societal interests in their interactions with government. All seek to contribute to our understanding of why some issues of concern to interest groups find their way onto the governmental agenda while others are excluded. Jointly, the papers will address normatively important questions about the extent to which interest groups can serve to connect citizens and elites in representative democracies.