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International Encyclopedia of Civil Society pp 1–9Cite as

Interest Politics

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

  • 126 Accesses

Synonyms

Advocacy groups; Cause groups; Civil society; Pressure groups; Social movements

Definition

Interest groups have been defined in a variety of ways, and with little precision. There has been a prevalent muddle of concepts regarding “interest” focused behavior, where civil society, nongovernmental organizations, pressure groups, advocacy groups, and political-social movements are used intermittently to describe the phenomenon. It has generally been held that interest groups consist of citizens who have a shared attitude or purpose, operating outside the private domain, the state and the market (although the boundaries are often blurred), who organize in an attempt to influence public policy (Eising 2016). When people join together to pursue their interests in the political arena, they constitute a “group.” Interest groups’ definition reveals three dimensions: structural-organizational, behavioral, and motivational. According to the organizational approach, interest groups are...

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References

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Further Reading

  • Binderkrantz, A. S., & Pedersen, H. H. (2019). The lobbying success of citizen and economic groups in Denmark and the UK. Acta Politica, 54(1), 75–103.

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  • Heany, M. T., & Lerfeld, P. (2018). Contributions by interest groups to lobbying coalitions. Journal of Politics, 80(2), 494–509.

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  • Kluver, H. (2018). Setting the party agenda. Interest groups, voters and issue attention. British Journal of Political Science, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123418000078.

  • Krasniqn, N. (2019). Kosovo: The development of interest groups in a fragile democracy. Journal of Public Affairs, 19. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1721.

  • Skilling, H. G., & Griffiths, F. (2018). Interest groups in soviet politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Political Science, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Yael Yishai

Authors
  1. Yael Yishai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yael Yishai .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Regina A. List

  2. Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Helmut K. Anheier

  3. Schar school, George Mason University, ARLINGTON, VI, USA

    Stefan Toepler

Section Editor information

  1. Hamburg, Germany

    Regina A. List

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Yishai, Y. (2020). Interest Politics. In: List, R., Anheier, H., Toepler, S. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99675-2_557-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99675-2_557-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99675-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99675-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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