Methodological Challenges and Contradictory Results in the Study of Interest Groups

Interest groups are crucial political actors. In modern political systems they navigate in a highly complex setting. A great variety of different actors seek influence and attention through many different venues. Groups operate in multilevel decision-making structures and may approach decision-makers directly through parliament or administration or indirectly through - most importantly in modern societies - the media in all its varieties. The nature of group activities is difficult to classify and the impact of groups on public policy hard to estimate not only to the groups themselves but also to the scholars that study them leading to contradictory and ambiguous research outcomes. We believe that interest group research can benefit substantially from paying greater attention to research design, methodology, and data collection. The usage of very different research designs and methods make it hard to compare the findings of studies and arrive at more general conclusions. This workshop seeks to contribute to the development of compatible and complementary research. It does not so by proposing a unified methodology for the study of groups, but by enabling dialogue on standards of measurement which can be used over time and across different institutional settings. Therefore, the workshop welcomes papers emphasizing methodological aspects in the empirical study of interest groups.