Matthew Lynch

In advanced liberal democracies, interest groups are a standard feature. As the term suggests, interest groups organize themselves in order to attract attention to their interests and influence political institutions accordingly. At any given point of time, there are numerous interests groups, with membership ranging from a handful to many millions. Interest groups in a liberal democracy are very important and are probably one of the most effective ways of influencing political institutions.

Representative governments are built on the notion that a significant amount of voters will not be concerned with policymaking, and their only real involvement in the political process is via elections. Hence, interest groups organize research and create position statements and present their case to politicians. Politicians in turn would be inclined to listen to interests groups for the sake of the votes at stake.

Interest groups have been known to thrust wide-ranging and important legislation into the spotlight, and influence government policies both internally and externally. However, interest groups can also be used to influence political institutions to enact legislation that could be mostly unpopular. Therefore, well-financed interest groups with strong political connections can significantly distort the democratic process.

There is a sharp inequality with regards to access to interest groups. As a result of this, governments prioritize their activities and pay attention to politically active interest groups. This in turn gives interest groups an unfair advantage with regards to political influence.

Another problem closely associated with unequal access to interest groups is the unequal power certain interest groups have over governments. The combination of liberal democracy and free market capitalism is an important source of such inequality. Businesses have a strong influence over governments because they are necessary for promoting growth and investment and provide significant tax revenues. Thus, interest groups headed by businesses and other commercial entities gain more attention from the government and the electorate alike.

This in turn, forces governments to extensively consult various economic indicators before enacting virtually any kind of legislation and usually means that they will not be able to pass legislation that would hurt business interests in a variety of areas. The dangers of this unequal power over the government is significant both in regards to internal and external policies. This allows the financial elite to dictate policies that will have a significant impact on or even go against the interests of the majority. Interest groups in general are a vital component of any vibrant democracy but unless they are properly regulated, in certain circumstances interests groups can do more harm than good.