Chapter Outline

This chapter is concerned with the comparative politics of interest group representation. The first two sections set out some basic definitional issues surrounding the character and form of interest group politics and the manner in which the shape of this political action varies across states. The second and larger part of the chapter looks at the nature of interest representation through the various lenses of the ‘new institutionalism’. The focus here is on the competing explanations offered by rational choice, cultural and structural approaches to the questions of why people join or do not join interest groups and the factors that affect the degree of political power exercised by different sorts of groups in different societies.