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The Representative Potential of Interest Groups: Internal Voice in Post-Communist and Western European Countries
[journal article]
Abstract Why do some interest group systems provide group members with more elaborate voice opportunities than other systems? We argue that evaluating membership voice is important for understanding the representative potential of interest group systems. An adequate understanding of “voice” forms the basis o... view more
Why do some interest group systems provide group members with more elaborate voice opportunities than other systems? We argue that evaluating membership voice is important for understanding the representative potential of interest group systems. An adequate understanding of “voice” forms the basis of “context”-embedded assessments of benchmarks such as interest group bias, interest group representational distortion, and interest group-driven policy overload. We examine two competing hypotheses on the differences in internal voice in Eastern and Western Europe. Primarily, case-specific arguments lead us to expect a weaker internal voice in post-communist Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe. Conversely, some theoretical approaches, such as population ecological organisational theory, lead us to expect a relatively weak membership voice in the organisationally saturated Western European systems. We assess these two hypotheses on the basis of an international survey of interest group leaders and observe, in line with the population ecological hypothesis, that members of Western European interest groups, compared to those in post-communist countries, are perceived as having less influential voices in internal decisions on policy positions. We conclude, neither optimistically nor pessimistically, that there is a meaningful representative potential of interest group systems supporting democratic societies, also, or even especially, in the post-communist countries studied.... view less
Keywords
Western Europe; Eastern Europe; democracy; political development; pressure group; interest group; representation; say
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
democratic backsliding; post-communist countries
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 50-64
Journal
Politics and Governance, 11 (2023) 1
Issue topic
Democratic Backsliding and Organized Interests in Central and Eastern Europe
ISSN
2183-2463
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed