Identifying Patterns of Interest Representation in Political Systems: A Test and Discussion of Different Methods

Studying patterns of interest representation in the political process and its possible diverse or biased nature, is one of the most central concerns of political scientists studying interest groups and lobbying (e.g. Schattschneider, 1960). Yet, such patterns are notoriously difficult to study given the fact that organized interests participate in different venues, jurisdictions and might behave differently over time. More specifically, identification of interest group populations often comes with a large amount of coding and is therewith highly costly. With the right documents at hand, state-of-the-art computer assisted methods however, could enable large-scale analyses of interest group communities. While promising, employment of such methods comes with its challenges too. This paper identifies the different approaches at hand which could identify large-scale interest group communities. Subsequently, it tests and compares them and discusses the trade-offs. In doing so, the current endeavor forms an important methodological guide for scholars that seek to study patterns of interest representation and possibly other political actors as well.