Interest Groups
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/Keywords:
interest groups, lobbying, collective action, power, democracyAbstract
In this paper I discuss the concept of interest groups – the term, the types, the ways they operate, their relations with other actors and their significance for democracy. An interest group is any organized actor with an aim to influence shaping of public policy. Different theories explain interest groups (pluralism, Marxism, elitism and corporatism). The relations among interest groups are relations of power, they accompany power and unmistakably know where the centers of power are. The operation of interest groups depends on the extent to which they are organized, the kind of resources they dispose of, the kind of aims they are trying to attain and whom they represent. The advantages in the work of interest groups are that some important tasks can be performed faster and more efficiently, that they imprint real relations on society, that they often articulate certain interests in a more systematic way, that they offer solutions that are frequently a check on the government and that they enable shortcuts for faster making of decisions and creation of policies. The disadvantages are that they pursue narrower rather than broader interests, that they influence policy without having obtained a mandate to do so from the citizens, often lacking both legality and legitimacy and in a manner which is non-transparent. There is no agreement about whether interest groups sustain or undermine democracy. In this paper I discuss Olson’s ’logic of collective action’ and its criticism. With the process of democratization and consolidation of institutions, the power of informal groups declines and becomes more formal and the process of policy-making becomes more transparent. The power of interest groups and powerful groups is weakened in the process of democratization.
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