In their attempts to influence public policy, European interest groups utilize a broad repertoire of strategies. Importantly groups supplement their bureaucratic contacts with strategies targeting other venues such as parliament and the media. Understanding how and why groups choose their influence strategies is a central issue for interest group research. Previous research has demonstrated for example how the type of group and group resources affect their strategies. A limitation is, however, that studies often ask groups to generalize across the range of issues they are engaged in. The paper argues that strategic choices are affected by the specific goals an interest group is pursuing in a given situation. It distinguishes between four relevant aspects of group goals: 1) whether goals can be graduated, 2) the degree of technical complexity of goals, 3) whether goals benefit the public good or special interests and 4) whether groups seek to protect or change the status quo. The analysis tests the effect of these four aspects of group goals in a survey of all national Danish interest groups. In the analysis variables related to group goals are incorporated alongside variables previously found to affect strategies such as group resources and type. The paper demonstrates that the incorporation of group goals does in fact add a significant element to our understanding of group strategies.
