Achieving Democracy through Interest Representation? Revisited

Abstract

The article focuses on the discussion of a link between interest representation and its importance for democracy. After a look at the pluralist, corporatist and neo-pluralist approaches, the article focuses in particular on the role for interest groups in associational, deliberative and participatory democracies. I debate whether or not interest representation is a necessary element of democracy and can the theoretical background help us in grasping it across all political systems. I address this question in the context of young, post-Communist democracies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). I argue that in the CEE countries, when studying interest groups’ populations and organizational behaviour, we have to take into consideration a number of internal and external factors that impacts perceptions and actual activity of interest groups when it comes to countries’ democratization.