(Inequality in) Interest Group Involvement and the Legitimacy of Policy Making
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Standard
(Inequality in) Interest Group Involvement and the Legitimacy of Policy Making. / Rasmussen, Anne; Reher, Stefanie.
In: British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 53, 2023, p. 45–64.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - (Inequality in) Interest Group Involvement and the Legitimacy of Policy Making
AU - Rasmussen, Anne
AU - Reher, Stefanie
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - While interest groups are consulted at different stages of policy making to provide expertise and legitimacy, their influence is often criticized as being undemocratic. Yet, we know little about how their participation in policy making affects citizen perceptions of the legitimacy of governance. Based on survey experiments conducted in the UK, the United States and Germany, our study shows that unequal participation between group types reduces the benefits of interest group consultation for citizens' perceived legitimacy of decision-making processes. Importantly, these legitimacy losses cannot be compensated for by policies that represent the opinion of the under-represented groups and are even greater when policy decisions favour the over-represented groups. Moreover, we show that citizen perceptions of how economically powerful and representative of society different types of interest groups are act as important drivers of legitimacy evaluations. Our results provide important new theoretical and empirical insights into when and why interest groups affect democratic legitimacy.
AB - While interest groups are consulted at different stages of policy making to provide expertise and legitimacy, their influence is often criticized as being undemocratic. Yet, we know little about how their participation in policy making affects citizen perceptions of the legitimacy of governance. Based on survey experiments conducted in the UK, the United States and Germany, our study shows that unequal participation between group types reduces the benefits of interest group consultation for citizens' perceived legitimacy of decision-making processes. Importantly, these legitimacy losses cannot be compensated for by policies that represent the opinion of the under-represented groups and are even greater when policy decisions favour the over-represented groups. Moreover, we show that citizen perceptions of how economically powerful and representative of society different types of interest groups are act as important drivers of legitimacy evaluations. Our results provide important new theoretical and empirical insights into when and why interest groups affect democratic legitimacy.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - organized interests
KW - legitimacy
KW - policy representation
KW - public policy
KW - public opinion
KW - survey experiment
U2 - 10.1017/S0007123422000242
DO - 10.1017/S0007123422000242
M3 - Journal article
VL - 53
SP - 45
EP - 64
JO - British Journal of Political Science
JF - British Journal of Political Science
SN - 0007-1234
ER -
ID: 302546436