ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

Interest Groups and Comparative Political Science: Empirical, Theoretical, Methodological and Normative Challenges

Citizenship
Civil Society
Comparative Politics
Democracy
Interest Groups
Political Participation
Representation
Social Movements
S021
Jan Beyers
Universiteit Antwerpen
William Maloney
Newcastle University

Endorsed by the ECPR Standing Group on Interest Groups


Abstract

The last decade has witnessed significant theoretical and methodological advancements in the study of interest group politics. However, to maintain the momentum of scientific progression further theoretical and methodological refinement and advancement of the sub-discipline is required. Crucially, the study of interest group politics should also be brought centrally into the field of comparative political science. Cross-fertilization with other sub-disciplines will deliver scientific innovation for both the study of interest group politics and comparative political science more broadly. This section therefore seeks theoretical, methodological, empirical and normative papers that contribute to gaining a better understanding of the challenges that scholars of organized interests and related political organizations face in placing their research centrally within comparative political science. These panels will be open to all scholars with a strong interest in bridging sub-disciplinary boundaries and will be innovative in two major respects. First, we explicitly seek to involve a stimulating mix of scholars who share thematic interests in a variety of areas, including interest groups, social movements, political parties, judicial, regulatory and bureaucratic politics, and political communication, as well as theoretical approaches to representation, participation and democracy. These sub-fields have often developed in parallel with little cross-fertilisation (Beyers, Eising and Maloney, 2008) and scholars active in these areas rarely communicate directly in academic fora. Secondly, we aim to engender contributions that focus on new ways of thinking, in particular conceptualising overlapping and complementary aspects that contribute to the generation of new research agendas. While several of the panel chairs we propose are internationally regarded scholars we expect that panels will involve an eclectic mix of scholars – i.e. senior and middle ranking, new entrants and postgraduate students, as well as scholars from southern, central and eastern Europe. The section is supported by the ECPR Standing Group on Interest Groups.
Code Title Details
P046 Contentious East Europeans View Panel Details
P161 Interest Groups and Political Communication View Panel Details
P162 Interest Groups and Political Parties View Panel Details
P163 Interest Groups and Social Movements View Panel Details
P164 Interest Groups in Comparative Perspective: How Different are Interest Groups in Young Democracies? View Panel Details
P165 Interest Groups, Judicial and Regulatory Politics in Europe View Panel Details
P166 Interest Groups: Measuring Influence View Panel Details
P374 The Political Institutions of Interest Group Politics in a Comparative Perspective View Panel Details
P396 Trade Unions from the EU Member States of Eastern Enlargement in EU Governance: Interest Representation, (dis)Empowerment and Europeanisation Effects View Panel Details
P401 Two Faces of Corporate Citizenship: Lobbying and Social Responsibility View Panel Details