Interest Groups and the Legitimacy of Governance

The active involvement of interest groups and other stakeholders in policy-making may lead to more inclusive and legitimate policy. At the same time, there are concerns in the literature and society that interest group involvement could lead to biases. Hence, group involvement may both harm and/or improve the legitimacy of policy-making in democratic polities. Our paper therefore explores how different kinds of interest group involvement in politics affect perceptions of the legitimacy of political decisions.