Jonathan Polk and co-authors examine the positions of European interest groups and political parties in two dimensions of political competition

Interest groups and political parties are the primary organizational carriers of citizens’ preferences into executive and legislative political institutions. Their combined effect for citizen representation has only recently come into focus.

We address this gap via an original cross-national survey of interest groups, which includes the self-placement of groups on the Left-Right and Gal-Tan dimensions. The configuration of groups on these dimensions are compared with Chapel Hill Expert Survey data on parties, and information on the preferences of citizens from the European Election Studies.

Our findings indicate that interest groups have the potential to supplement multidimensional gaps in representation between the political party system and citizen preferences.

Authors: Frida Boräng, Daniel Naurin, Jonathan Polk

Title: Making space: citizens, parties, and interest groups in two ideological dimensions

 Link to the publication: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13501763.2023.2182819

Find out more about the authors:

• Frida Boräng | Göteborgs universitet (gu.se)
• Daniel Naurin | University of Gothenburg (gu.se)
• Jonathan Polk | Department of Political Science (lu.se)