The Representative Potential of Interest Groups: Internal Voice in Post-Communist and Western European Countries

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 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.

New Kids on the Democracy Block: Europeanisation of Interest Groups in Central and Eastern Europe

“…In 76.9% of organisations, members have at least some influence when the organisation is making decisions on political strategies, and in 72% of them members have at least some influence while positions are being formed on public policies (see Figures 6 and 7). In general, members of interest groups from CEE, compared to those from Western Europe, have voices that are more influential in the internal decisions of their interest groups (Berkhout et al, 2023).…”

Democratic Backsliding and Organized Interests in Central and Eastern Europe: An Introduction

“…Two articles are comparative studies. Berkhout et al (2023) examine the internal democracy of interest groups. Based on the Comparative Interest Group Surveys (Beyers et al, 2020) they examine the internal decision-making processes of Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese, Swedish, Polish, Slovenian, and Lithuanian interest groups.…”