Representing the Public? How Organisational and Contextual Features Affect the Likelihood of Policy Congruence Between Organised Interests and Citizen Preferences

This paper asks to what extent and under which conditions interest groups agree with the public at large. We argue that interest groups can be caught in a balancing act between engaging with their constituents on the one hand and aligning their position with the broader public on the other hand. First, while a formal membership base and an intensive engagement with constituents can benefit an organisation’s internal representativeness, it may also constrain the organisation in aligning its objectives with what the broader public wants. Second, the ease with which groups can align their position with the broader public is determined by the salience and polarization of the policy issue. We test these expectations based on an analysis of 114 Belgian interest groups on 74 policy issues for which we have detailed public opinion data. Our results show that diffuse organisations without formal members can more easily choose to side with the public, especially if they do not engage their constituents in internal decision-making and when public opinion is unified.