Groups, representation and democracy

Can groups effectively link citizens to political institutions and policy processes? Are groups an antidote to emerging democratic deficits? This book will prompt senior students, researchers and seasoned scholars to think critically about the claim that groups can contribute to repairing democratic deficits.

Can groups effectively link citizens to political institutions and policy processes? Are groups an antidote to emerging democratic deficits? This book will prompt senior students, researchers and seasoned scholars to think critically about the claim that groups can contribute to repairing democratic deficits.

Whether called pressure groups, NGOs, social movement organisations or organised civil society, the value of ‘groups’ to the policy process, to economic growth, to governance, to political representation and to democracy has always been contested. However, there seems to be a contemporary resurgence in this debate largely centred on their democratising potential: can groups effectively link citizens to political institutions and policy processes? Are groups an antidote to emerging democratic deficits? Or do groups themselves face challenges in demonstrating their legitimacy and representativeness?This book debates the democratic potential and practice of groups; focussing on the vibrancy of internal democracies, and modes of accountability with those who join such groups and to the constituencies they advocate for. It draws on literatures covering national, European and global levels, and presents new empirical material from the UK and Australia

1. Groups as agents of democracy?2. Interest group aliases: towards definitional commensurability?3. Democratic expectations: the representation account4. Between representation and solidarity: (re)calibrating democratic expectations5. Democratic promises and practices: some empirical evidence6. The orthodox case: the drift from representation towards solidarity7. Making Olson work: rejuvenating ‘supply-side’ explanations8. Are ‘protest businesses’ contemporary phenomenon?9. Democratic transformation: fulfilling the promise of representation10. Between promise and practiceReferencesIndex