Interest Groups in Modern Politics and Policy-making: Influence and Representation Bias

The study of interest group involvement in politics and policy-making across democratic systems of government has witnessed important advancements in the past decade. We know much more today about how effective are the strategies used by interest groups to gain access to and exert influence in national and supranational political and policy-making venues. However, two overarching questions still generate lively debates in this field of research: what is the level and type of bias in interest group influence characterizing modern political systems; and how can we reliably and systematically evaluate bias in interest representation and policy influence? To answer these questions, researchers are now turning towards innovative approaches that range from utilizing experimental methods in the study of interest group influence to examining congruence between organized interests and public opinion. Our Section is open to both junior and senior scholars and aims to bring together a diverse set of Panels and Papers on theoretical, methodological and empirical questions concerning political representation via organized interests. We also welcome studies that bridge interest group research with other political actors (parties and social movements) in the judicial, administrative and parliamentary arenas, especially in underexplored political systems, such as Eastern and Southern European countries. The Section is supported by the ECPR Standing Group on Interest Groups. Proposed Panels 1. Interest group influence in modern politics and policy-making Conceptualizing and measuring in a reliably and valid manner interest groups’ influence is a notoriously difficult task, despite scholars’ sustained efforts to address this issue. This Panel invites contributions that tackle two important questions: what are the conceptual differences and similarities between the ‘political influence’ and ‘policy influence’ exerted by interest groups across political systems? What are the methodological challenges encountered by scholars in capturing empirically these two concepts? 2. Public opinion and interest groups A new line of inquiry is the contrast and comparison between the issue priorities expressed by public opinion and those expressed by interest groups and policy makers. This Panel invites Papers that study the convergence of public opinion and interest groups’ policy preferences across policy areas and systems of governance, as well as the effects of this convergence on levels of interest group political and policy influence. 3. Innovative methods in interest group research New methods are constantly applied to study interest groups. Quantitative text analysis and unsupervised text scaling algorithms have been used to extract interest groups’ policy positions and estimate their lobbying success across policy areas and decision-making events. Experimental research and social network analysis are the latest approaches introduced in the field. This Panel invites methodological Papers that address various questions pertinent to the study of interest groups influence and representation bias. 4. Interest groups in a comparative perspective The comparative study of interest groups has recently gained more ground in the field. We expect that the Comparative Interest Groups Survey project (http://www.cigsurvey.eu), which brings together researchers from 11 European countries, will generate a number of high quality research papers that will be presented in this Panel. Contributions adopting an European/EU - US analytical perspective are particularly welcome. 5. The role of media in building successful lobbying strategies Media plays a key role in building successful and effective outside lobbying strategies. With the help of media outlets interest groups can increase the visibility of an issue or capitalize on highly salient topics. This Panel invites Papers that examine the relationship between interest groups and the media, as well as the role played by political communication in lobbying. 6. Lobbying across branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Institutions shape lobbying behavior and there is significant variation in the type of venues interest groups approach in order to exert political and policy influence. Institutions have different incentives to interact and grant interest groups access to political and policy decision-making processes. This Panel invites Papers that seek to identify and compare broad patterns of interaction between interest groups and institutional actors (e.g. political parties, etc.) across policy areas and systems of government. 7. Theoretical and normative aspects of lobbying There are very few theoretical or normative reflections on the role of interest groups in contemporary societies. Nonetheless, the wealth of empirical research produced in the past decades provides an important basis for such reflections. The Panel invites Papers that seek to address and discuss the role of interest groups in modern democracies and the normative implications of lobbying across political systems. 8. Open Panel This Panel invites scholars to propose their own Panel based on their specific interests and research topics, thus allowing them the opportunity to identify other research topics relevant for the literature on interest groups that have not been proposed as part of the Section.