When Professionals Take Over

Organized interests have an important role to play in democratic political systems. These days, interest groups operate under severe constraints, are confronted with institutional or legal complexity and face competition from many other organizations. One way of coping with such a challenging environment is to professionalize. Interest groups appoint a full-time secretary general and/or recruit experts in communication, law or management. These professionals tend to further institutionalize the organizations for which they work. For example, by creating internal departments responsible for certain tasks or a specific sub-set of issues. Additionally, professionals tend to establish an external network of chapters or liaison offices which focus on specific levels of governance. In this regard, professionalization corresponds with and is an important indication of the institutionalization of interest organizations. But how does professionalization and institutionalization affect the way in which interest groups fulfill their representational tasks? On the one hand, institutionalization may lead to a more robust and persistent organization. This improved organizational stability may make some organized interests more effective at conveying and defending the interest of their constituencies. On the other hand, some research warns that as organizational survival becomes a goal in itself, the group leadership, which includes a growing number of professionals, is less concerned with the constituency and their involvement in public policy making (McCarthy & Zald 2002, Skocpol 2004, Maloney 2012). The weakening of the ties between leaders and constituencies could lead to mission drift or goal displacement. However, little systematic research has been conducted to uncover the mechanisms that connect the organizational development of interest groups with representational outcomes. This paper aims to build a theoretical framework which identifies and clarifies the relationship between professionalization, institutionalization and representation.