Interest Groups and Comparative Political Science: Empirical, Theoretical, Methodological and Normative Challenges

The last decade has witnessed significant theoretical and methodological advancements in the study of interest group politics. However, to maintain the momentum of scientific progression further theoretical and methodological refinement and advancement of the sub-discipline is required. Crucially, the study of interest group politics should also be brought centrally into the field of comparative political science. Cross-fertilization with other sub-disciplines will deliver scientific innovation for both the study of interest group politics and comparative political science more broadly. This section therefore seeks theoretical, methodological, empirical and normative papers that contribute to gaining a better understanding of the challenges that scholars of organized interests and related political organizations face in placing their research centrally within comparative political science. These panels will be open to all scholars with a strong interest in bridging sub-disciplinary boundaries and will be innovative in two major respects. First, we explicitly seek to involve a stimulating mix of scholars who share thematic interests in a variety of areas, including interest groups, social movements, political parties, judicial, regulatory and bureaucratic politics, and political communication, as well as theoretical approaches to representation, participation and democracy. These sub-fields have often developed in parallel with little cross-fertilisation (Beyers, Eising and Maloney, 2008) and scholars active in these areas rarely communicate directly in academic fora. Secondly, we aim to engender contributions that focus on new ways of thinking, in particular conceptualising overlapping and complementary aspects that contribute to the generation of new research agendas. While several of the panel chairs we propose are internationally regarded scholars we expect that panels will involve an eclectic mix of scholars – i.e. senior and middle ranking, new entrants and postgraduate students, as well as scholars from southern, central and eastern Europe. The section is supported by the ECPR Standing Group on Interest Groups.