Parties are central actors in elections, legislatures and governments and they are an important intermediary between voters and the state in democracies. To better understand how public policy comes about and who parties represent, it is therefore important to investigate interest groups’ influence on parties.

Organizational ties

The first part of the dissertation looks at organizational ties, such as regular meetings, between parties and interest groups. Such ties can be an important prerequisite for influence. 

The results, based on surveys of parties and interest groups in Western democracies, show that groups and parties today generally have informal ties – they for example often attend each other’s national congresses or conferences. 

The dissertation also shows that there is a positive correlation between interest groups’ financial contributions to parties and the strength of ties. Party finance regulations also seem to be important in this regard.

Parties influence

The second part of the dissertation investigates whether and why interest groups perceive that they influence parties in different policy areas and whether parties adopt interest group input. 

The findings here indicate that, among other things, party characteristics seem to be important to explain influence. Interest groups are for example more likely to be influential if parties are more willing to compromise and if they are in opposition rather than in government.

About the dissertation defence

The dissertation defence took place today, November 26 at 13:15 in Eden auditorium. Discussant was Professor Ro Patrick Barnhagen, Institut für Sozialwissenschaften (Stuttgart, Germany).