5 things you always wanted to know about interest groups

Virtually no government policy gets enacted without some organized societal interests trying to shape the outcome. In fact, interest groups – a term that encompasses such diverse actors as business associations, labour unions, professional associations, and citizen groups that defend broad interests such as environmental protection or development aid – are active at each stage of the policy cycle: they try to influence which policies make it onto the political agenda; which ones are adopted at the end of the legislative process; and how the policies adopted get implemented. They even turn to courts to overturn laws or to establish a certain interpretation of laws. Undoubtedly, then, interest groups play an important role in democratic political systems, making research on interest groups highly relevant. Here are five key insights:

1. Many more business groups than citizen groups are politically active in basically all political systems. In different countries and at different levels of governance (the subnational level, the national level, and the international level) around 50% of the interest groups that engage in political activity represent business interests. This includes not only broad business associations and chambers of commerce, but also sector-specific associations such as those representing firms in the chemical sector or the financial industry. When adding firms that lobby on their own, the dominance of business interests becomes even more pronounced, at least in purely quantitative terms.While at first this business advantage, in terms of mobilization, may appear alarming, its normative implications are actually ambiguous. On the one hand, it can indeed be seen as undermining the democratic principle of one person, one vote. Clearly, not all interests have an equal chance of being heard by policymakers. On the other hand, it may simply be that business interests have to be more active because they have a greater and more direct stake in many policies. The unequal mobilization may even be an indication of a legislative agenda with many policies that run counter to key business interests.

2. Most interest groups are small and resource-poor, independent of the measure we use to capture size and resources. Clearly, there are some interest groups that violate this rule. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), for example, has offices in several countries around the world, a considerable number of employees and a large number of members. As such, however, it is a stark outlier in the interest group population. Most interest groups only employ a small number of staff, which makes it impossible for them to focus on several policy debates at a time. They also have a severely limited budget and a relatively small membership. Across several European countries, for example, less than a third of all business associations have more than 100 firms as members. The small size of many interest groups also means that they are constantly threatened in their survival. In fact, there is a steady turn-over in the population of interest groups, with some groups disappearing and others being created.

3. Given their relatively small size, it is also no wonder that most interest groups are quite specialized. Most groups focus on just a few policy areas, allowing them to develop expertise on the issues that they work on, despite their resource constraints. Specialization in specific niches also enhances the chances of survival of interest groups. A few policy areas, however, see a particularly large amount of interest group activity: key among them are environmental, research, employment, and education policy. Business associations, citizen groups, professional associations, and labour unions all consider these as areas of high importance for their work.

4. Many interest groups are active beyond the national level. Activity in international organizations – in Europe, and in the European Union in particular – has become essential for most interest groups. Interest groups thus need to interact with groups from other countries and get acquainted with how to do lobbying in different institutional contexts. Again, this applies not only to business associations, which are known for their international linkages, but also to citizen groups, professional associations, and labour unions. The internationalization of business associations, however, exceeds that of other types of interest groups. This internationalization is made possible by a membership that has the capacity to closely monitor the activities of the organization, even if these activities take place abroad, whereas citizen groups often need to focus on issues that are close to the citizens that support them.

5. Business associations adopt a lobbying style that is quite different from the approach taken by other types of groups, especially citizen groups. They have a relatively greater focus on providing information to decision-makers, whereas citizen groups concentrate relatively more on activities aimed at mobilizing the public. Business interests also enjoy better access to decision-makers (especially the executive) at different levels of governance and in different political systems. There is little evidence, however, that business interest groups can easily translate this advantage in terms of access into greater influence on policy outcomes. In democratic political systems, decision-makers have an incentive to respond to public opinion. And to the extent that citizen groups can shape public opinion, they can exert significant influence on public policies. The success of the campaign against the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in Europe is an illustration of this point. Business interests have had an advantage in terms of access to decision-makers on this issue; but the public pressure created by citizen groups has led to a considerable shift in the stances of the European Commission, the European Parliament and some national governments.

In short, interest groups play an important role in democratic politics. Nevertheless, they are less powerful than often portrayed in popular accounts. They are relatively small and resource-poor, and even groups that gain access to decision-makers often fail to get their way on policies that are dear to them. Interest group politics thus is neither the main source of, nor the best cure for, the ills of contemporary democracies.

Featured image credit: Modern financial office building by Pawel Pacholec. CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr.