scholarly journals Conceptualizing and measuring party-interest group relationships

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882094939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elin Haugsgjerd Allern ◽  
Simon Otjes ◽  
Thomas Poguntke ◽  
Vibeke Wøien Hansen ◽  
Sabine Saurugger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Scaling Analysis ◽  
Group Relationships ◽  
Organizational Ties ◽  
Party Group

Relationships between political parties and interest groups form structures that enable and constrain political action. Yet there is a lack of consensus on what ‘party-group relationships’ means. We propose a conceptualization focusing on ties as means for structured interaction, which is different from sharing or transfer of resources and ideological kinship. Our conceptual discussion suggests that organizational ties form a single yet hierarchical scale of strength: groups that have many formal ties with particular parties would also have weaker ties with these parties, but not vice versa. To validate our conceptual map, we furthermore check whether the distinction between organizational ties, resource sharing/provision and ideological kinship holds empirically. We explore our expectations by means of novel interest group survey data from seven mature democracies. The results of our scaling analysis provide support for our predictions and have multiple implications for future research on the causes and effects of party-group relationships.

scholarly journals The contingent character of interest groups–political parties’ interaction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Laura Chaqués-Bonafont ◽  
Camilo Cristancho ◽  
Luz Muñoz-Márquez ◽  
Leire Rincón
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Western Democracies

Abstract This article examines the conditions under which interest groups interact with political parties. Existing research finds that interest group–political party interactions in most western democracies have become more open and contingent over time. The close ideological and formal organisational ties that once characterised these relations have gradually been replaced by alternative, more pragmatic forms of cooperation. However, most of this research stresses the importance of the structural factors underpinning these links over time and across countries, but sheds little light on the factors driving short-term interest group–party interactions. Here, by drawing on survey data on Spanish interest groups obtained between December 2016 and May 2017, this article seeks to fill this gap by taking into account party status, issue salience and a group’s resources as explanatory variables. It shows that mainstream parties are the primary targets of interest groups, that groups dealing with salient issues are more likely to contact political parties and that the groups with most resources interact with a larger number of parties.

Capitalism, Institutions, and Power in the Study of Business

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pepper D. Culpepper
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Preference Formation ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Democratic Capitalism

This chapter explores the contributions of historical institutionalist scholarship to understanding preference formation in business. It critiques the analytical drift of the literature away from some conceptual sites of essential political action in democratic capitalism: issues of power, common trends across capitalist countries, and the role of voters in structuring the character of political conflict among interest groups and political parties. The chapter proposes a governance space, defined by the two dimensions of political salience and institutional formality, as a way to combine insights about the importance of institutional context with the structurally uneven allocation of power resources in capitalism.

Local and State Interest Group Organizations

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Nownes
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
National Level ◽  
Future Research

This chapter examines the literature on local and state interest groups. The author argues that much of the interest group literature has focused on the national level even though there are large gaps in what we know about local and state groups and sub-national collective action. The bulk of the chapter outlines just how much we have learned about interest group organizations and concludes with a discussion of directions for future research.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Emily J. Charnock
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Political Action Committees ◽  
System P ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
American Party

This introduction highlights the controversial nature and limited extent of interest group electioneering in the early twentieth century compared to its pervasiveness today. When early interest groups did engage in elections, they sought to appear nonpartisan, whereas many contemporary interest groups operate in effect as allies of the major parties. While different generations of political scientists have offered theories that explain each approach to elections and partisanship, they do not explain the shift in interest group behavior apparent across the twentieth century. This introduction provides a developmental account, elaborated in later chapters, that explains the intertwined embrace of electioneering and partisanship among major interest groups in the mid-twentieth century. It recounts when and why these groups formed political action committees (PACs) to undertake these electioneering activities and argues that such PACs have been used to transform the American party system.

4. Neo-functionalism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Functionalist Theory ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Supranational Institutions ◽  
Spillover Hypothesis

This chapter examines the main assumptions of neo-functionalism, especially with regards to European integration. The fundamental argument of neo-functionalists is that states are not the only important actors on the international scene. They claim that supranational institutions and non-state actors, such as interest groups and political parties, are the real driving force behind integration efforts. The chapter first provides an overview of the main features of neo-functionalist theory and its historical development since the 1950s before discussing three hypotheses advanced by neo-functionalists: the spillover hypothesis, the elite socialization hypothesis, and the supranational interest group hypothesis. After explaining the concepts of supranationalism and spillover, the chapter considers the main critiques of neo-functionalist theory. It concludes by describing the revival of interest in neo-functionalism and giving some examples that illustrate how today's neo-functionalists differ from those of the 1950s.

The Power of the Party: Conflict Expansion and the Agenda Diversity of Interest Groups

2019 ◽  
pp. 106591291986714 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. J. Fagan ◽  
Zachary A. McGee ◽  
Herschel F. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Electoral Incentives ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Policy Conflicts ◽  
Policy Content ◽  
Conflict Expansion

To what extent do political parties have an effect on the policy-related activity of interest groups? Drawing from ideas of conflict expansion and the structure of extended party networks, we argue that political parties are able to pull interest groups into more policy conflicts than they otherwise would be involved in. We posit that parties are able to draw interest groups to be active outside of established issue niches. We suggest that several mechanisms—shared partisan electoral incentives, reciprocity, identification with the means, and cue-taking behavior—lead groups to participate in more diverse political conflicts. By linking data on interest group bill positions and the policy content of legislation, we generate a novel measure of 158 interest groups’ alignment with political parties. We find that the more an interest group is ideologically aligned with a political party, the more diverse their issue agenda becomes.

A Network Approach to Interest Group Politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Heaney ◽  
James M. Strickland
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Longitudinal Network Analysis ◽  
Interest Group Politics ◽  
Access Information ◽  
Group Politics

Interest groups often serve as intermediaries or brokers between formal decision-making institutions and organized subgroups of society. Due to this positioning, key functions of interest groups can be understood in network terms. This chapter addresses five questions about interest groups to which network analysis offers answers: (1) What are the origins of interest groups?; (2) How do they develop, maintain, and change their identities over time?; (3) Under what conditions do groups work together, and how?; (4) How do interest groups relate to other political institutions?; and (5) What influence do they have on politics generally? The discussion highlights various effects of networks on interest group politics, including how new groups are born out of preexisting networks, how they use connections to access information and influence policy, and how they maintain long-term relationships with policymakers. Future research could benefit from greater attention to multiplexity, content analysis, and longitudinal network analysis.

Setting the Party Agenda: Interest Groups, Voters and Issue Attention

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 979-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Klüver
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Campaign Contributions ◽  
Information Campaign ◽  
Voter Preferences ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Issue Attention ◽  
Group Mobilization ◽  
Policy Agendas

Do political parties respond to interest group mobilization? While party responsiveness to voters has received widespread attention, little is known about how interest groups affect parties’ policy agendas. I argue that political parties respond to interest groups as lobbyists offer valuable information, campaign contributions, electoral support and personal rewards, but that party responsiveness is conditioned by voter preferences. Based on a novel longitudinal analysis studying the responsiveness of German parties to interest groups across eleven issue areas and seven elections from 1987 until 2009, it is shown that parties adjust their policy agendas in response to interest group mobilization and that interest groups are more successful in shaping party policy when their priorities coincide with those of the electorate.

Interest Groups and the Judiciary

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Coalition Formation ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Amicus Curiae ◽  
Organized Interests ◽  
Current State ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
The U.S

Interest groups play an important role in the legal system, participating in a wide array of cases as litigants, sponsors, amici curiae, and intervenors. This chapter provides a critical analysis of academic scholarship on interest group litigation, devoting particular attention to establishing the limitations of the current state of knowledge and providing suggestions for future research. This chapter demonstrates that, while there has been a great deal of research on some facets of social movement litigation, such as amicus curiae participation in the U.S. Supreme Court, others have been relatively unexplored, including investigations of coalition formation, venue selection, and extrajudicial lobbying. Thus, there are ample opportunities for future scholars to contribute to our understanding of planned litigation by organized interests.

scholarly journals When do political parties prioritize labour? Issue attention between party competition and interest group power

2019 ◽  
pp. 135406881987560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Otjes ◽  
Christoffer Green-Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Election Manifestos ◽  
Issue Attention ◽  
Project Data

This article analyses the conditions under which political parties spend attention to labour issues. This article compares the dominant partisan perspective, which proposes that attention to issues is shaped by party competition, to an interest group perspective, which proposes that strong interest groups, in particular when their power is institutionalized in corporatist systems, can force parties to spend attention to their issue. We use the Comparative Agenda Project data set of election manifestos to examine these patterns in seven West-European countries and corroborate our findings in the Comparative Manifesto Project data set for 25 countries. The evidence supports the interest group perspective over the partisan perspective. This shows that the study of party attention to issues should not isolate party competition from the influence of other political actors.

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