Introduction

Interest groups and social movements form an indispensable part of the political system in democratic countries. Yet there is a social and scholarly debate going on about the power that these groups have or should have (Korteweg & Huisman 2016). For example, many people are concerned that politicians are more willing to listen to the interests of businesses or people with a higher education rather than focusing on interests that are widely shared in society. They believe this could mean that public policy is more favourable to producers than consumers, that more political attention is paid to the needs of people with a higher level of education than to those with less education, and that ‘established’ policy programmes are hardly adapted at all to new conditions. This, they say is unjust and inefficient.

Others say that interest groups often help to improve the quality of public policies, that they articulate ideals that get little attention in other ways, such as a sustainable world or respect for human rights, that they draw attention to social or economic problems and contribute to the political emancipation of minority groups. To illustrate, for decades, trade unions have defended the interests of workers. In 2015, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a partnership of four Tunisian interest groups. According to the Nobel Prize Committee, the ‘Quartet National Dialogue’ contributed to the new democracy that arose in Tunisia during the Jasmine Revolution. And the intensive cooperation among environmental organisations and several large multinationals was considered crucial to the success of the most recent round of climate negotiations. In short, over the years interest groups have alternately been seen as heroes and as enemies of democracy. The question that this raises is which description is closer to the truth. Is the power of interest groups indeed so great that they sideline citizens? And if this is so, is it more often to the advantage of more-powerful organisations, such as those in the business world, or rather a weapon of marginalised groups in society, such as those we saw during the Arab Spring?

To give a good answer to the question of the power and influence of interest groups, it is important to first point out that interest groups and social movements come in many sorts and these are politically active in various ways.