Analysing Changes and Continuities: Expanding Horizons in Interest Groups Research

This Section tackles the ways in which parallel and interconnected processes in the interest group environment affect interest groups' role in different political systems. One such process is the ongoing tightening of the space for manoeuvre for interest groups, with growing stigmatization and restrictions on 'voice' not only in non-democratic contexts, but also in longstanding and consolidated democracies. Another process includes the intensified public and grassroots demands for greater transparency and accountability in interest representation on different levels, particularly in the aftermath of large-scale corruption scandals. Such demands are calling for a fresh look at the elite status and careers of lobbyists and interest group staff, as well as interest groups’ interaction and integration with political and corporate elites, and how this in turn affects interest representation outcomes. Finally, deepening economic inequalities, intensified social and climate injustices, and rapid digitalization following the global Covid-19 pandemic, open new challenges but also opportunities for interest groups’ influence and survival, requiring our scholarly attention. The Section seeks Papers which tackle the role and responses of interest groups to these processes in different geographical and political contexts. We particularly encourage longitudinal perspectives on interest groups' behaviour, with the aim of disentangling causal mechanisms and encouraging theory building. Section Chairs also aim to encourage interdisciplinary approaches in the study of interest groups' behaviour, and therefore invite submissions from scholars at varying levels of seniority and those studying geographical contexts which have thus far received little scholarly attention. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and normative Papers tackling one or more of the following themes: ▪️ The role that time, timing, and temporality play in interest group processes and politics ▪️ Changes and continuities in interest group lobbying strategies ▪️ The representative potential of interest groups in the digital era ▪️ Interest groups’ behaviour in times of crises and narrowing civic spaces ▪️ Interest groups-elites interaction and integration: careers and networks ▪️ Accountability, transparency, and regulation of interest representation ▪️ Interest groups' role across different stages of the policy-making process ▪️ Interest groups' links with other political groups: interest groups-political parties and interest groups-social movements nexus ▪️ Corporations as political actors ▪️ New methodological and analytical approaches in research on interest groups.