Interactions Between Interest Groups and Political Parties – Does Values Matters?

Interactions between interest groups and political parties are a critical aspect of political systems. Their cooperation and dialogue are considered influential in determining the quality of democracy. Both entities aim to influence decision-making processes, but they hold different positions in the system and differ in goals and methods of operation. However, for the CEE region, the factors influencing such interactions are still only partially discovered. Therefore taking in account a perspective of the general policy positions such as the role of government in economic matters, personal freedoms and rights, ecology, social, moral and cultural issues, we analyze whether value-related factors affect the frequency of interest groups’ interactions with political parties, identify which types of parties are most appealing to groups, and explore how the types and values of interest groups facilitate these interactions. Our study relies on data from a new large-scale survey of organized interests, bringing in a comparative perspective of the three Central European countries: Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.