Interest

Interest articulation

How individuals, groups, and institutions formulate and express needs, demands, and policy preferences.

Interest aggregation

The process by which political resources are combined behind policy issues or programs.

Voting

The most common activity for citizens to express dissatisfaction or support in a democratic society.

Protests

High pressure activities that can mobilize the public and directly pressure elites.

Grassroot politics

People working together to address a common problem

Anomic Groups

Spontaneous group formations that have no structure or planning, dispersing after the event.

No associational Groups

Long-standing common interests, and identities of neighbourhood, ethnicity, region, religion, occupation, or kinship. Rarely well-organized, activity is episodic/no formal organization

Collective action problem

The difficulty of organizing groups where individual costs outweigh expected benefits.

Institutional Groups

Formally organized groups such as political parties, businesses, and bureaucracies that influence policy.

Associational Groups

Formal associations like trade unions or ethnic associations motivated by political ideologies.

Military and Interest Representation

Has instruments of force and organizational capacity — absent strong constitutional tradition, it is effective contender for power

Civil Society

A society where individuals engage in social and political interactions free of state control.

Pluralist Interest Group Systems

Systems where multiple groups represent a single interest, and membership is voluntary. Clear separation between interest groups and the government

Democratic Corporatist Interest Group Systems

Groups that are centrally organized, compulsory, and systematically involved in policy-making.

Controlled Interest Group Systems

Single groups for each social sector that are hierarchically organized and controlled by the government. (ex. traditional communist system)

Channels of Access

The routes through which interest groups can reach policymakers, including both legitimate and illegitimate means.

Legitimate Channel Access

Personal Connections, Mass Media, Political Parties, Legislatures, Government Bureaucracies

Coercive/illegitimate Channel Access

Riots, Strikes, Political terror tactics

Competitive party system

Build electoral support through competition among multiple political parties, allowing voters to choose their representatives.

Authoritarian party system

Parties direct society, seek to prevent alternation in power

Single-member district plurality (SMDP)

“First past the post”, only to finish ahead of any of the others but need not win a majority of votes

Proportional representation

An electoral system where parties gain seats based on how many percentage of the votes they get

Duverger’s Law

The principle that single-member districts create two-party systems.

Mechanical effect

3rd parties don’t win

Psychological effect

voters anticipate mechanical effect

Strategic voting

Support given to a party to avoid worse situation

Centrist pull or “convergence”

Parties are interested only in winning elections, and that all voters will choose the party that positions itself closest to their own policy preference. The parties will moderate their policies so as to try to win the support of the median voter.

Coalition governments

Governments formed by joining forces of multiple parties that coordinate their election campaigns.

Majoritarian two-party systems

Dominated by two parties, have two dominant parties and election laws that create legislative majorities for one

Majority-coalition systems

Establish pre-elected coalitions so voters know which parties will work together to form government

Multiparty systems

Election laws and party systems that ensure no single party wins legislative majority

Consensual party system

Parties are not far apart on policies and trust each other and political system. Bargaining may be intense, but seldom conflictual

Conflictual party system

A party system where parties have significantly divergent policies and are antagonistic toward each other.

Consociational (accommodative) party system

Some party systems have both consensual and conflictual features

Exclusive governing party

Which recognizes no legitimate interest aggregation by groups outside the party. Nor does it permit any free activity, much less opposition, from interest groups, citizens, or other government agencies

Inclusive governing party

Which recognizes and accepts at least some other groups and organizations, but may repress those that it sees as serious challenges to its own control

Authoritarian corporatist system

A system that encourages interest aggregation but suppresses independent political activity.

Electoral authoritarianism

A façade of democracy that allows minimal political opposition while restricting serious criticism.

Significance of Interest Representation

The way interests are aggregated influences governmental actions and citizens' options.