The Representative Potential of Interest Groups: Internal Voice in Post-Communist and Western European Countries

Why do some interest group systems provide members with more elaborate voice opportunities than other systems? We argue that evaluating membership is important for understanding the representative potential of systems. An adequate “voice” forms basis “context”-embedded assessments benchmarks such as bias, representational distortion, and group-driven policy overload. examine two competing hypotheses on differences in internal Eastern Western Europe. Primarily, case-specific arguments lead us to expect a weaker post-communist Europe compared Conversely, theoretical approaches, population ecological organisational theory, relatively weak organisationally saturated European assess these an international survey leaders observe, line hypothesis, groups, those countries, are perceived having less influential voices decisions positions. conclude, neither optimistically nor pessimistically, there meaningful supporting democratic societies, also, or even especially, countries studied.