Interest Groups and Policymaking: Ongoing Traditions and New Perspectives

The study of organised interests’ involvement in policymaking has advanced at a rapid pace, along with the focus of this research: from interest groups’ choices among strategies and venues, to their influence over policy outcomes, and their role as bridges between the public and policymakers. In this Section we aim to bring together theoretical and methodological advances in interest group research, as well as new perspectives on classical theoretical and empirical questions. We welcome new angles on topics such as collective action problems, exchange approaches to interest group activity, and issues of representation and bias in the interest group system. In doing so we take a broad definition of interest groups and encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and questions. This includes, but is not limited to, work drawing on regulatory governance (e.g. the role of interest groups in regulatory agencies, or the regulation of lobbying itself); social movements (e.g. the integration and transformation of movements into interest groups, or non-institutionalised action by interest groups); and organisational theory (e.g. the study of interest groups as organisations). This Section provides the opportunity to draw together these various emerging research topics. We welcome theoretical, empirical and normative papers from larger, trans-European projects, as well as projects at the national level. We particularly encourage submissions researching interest groups in less well-examined regions of the world, and support exchange between early-stage and more senior scholars from varying disciplinary backgrounds. Suggested panels 1. The representative role of interest groups 2. Public policy and interest groups: agendas and outcomes 3. Comparative methods in interest group research 4. The nexus between interest groups and political parties 5. Lobbying influence: who, where and when 6. Lobbying strategies: new approaches 7. Interest groups and social movements 8. Interest group regulation and transparency