Interest Groups & Advocacy

, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp 185–205 | Cite as

Opening the black box: The professionalization of interest groups in the European Union

  • Heike Klüver
  • Sabine Saurugger
Original Article
First Online:

Executive Summary

Does professionalization vary across interest group type? Even though an empirical assessment of interest group professionalization is crucial to understand their potential for enhancing the democratic legitimacy of the European Union, little is known about the internal configuration of interest groups. Although some argue that professionalization differs systematically across interest group type, others suggest that institutional pressures lead to converging professionalization patterns, so that cause groups and sectional groups are similarly professionalized. However, these assertions are based on case studies focusing only on a small number of interest groups, which makes it difficult to draw general conclusions. To overcome this important shortcoming, we provide an empirical analysis of professionalization patterns that is based on a comprehensive survey conducted among a wide variety of interest groups. Our findings indicate that professionalization patterns do not vary systematically across interest group type. By contrast, cause groups and sectional groups are similarly professionalized.

Keywords

European Union interest groups organizational structure professionalization 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

We thank William Maloney, Joost Berkhout, Grant Jordan and the anoynmous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions

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Copyright information

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Heike Klüver
    • 1
  • Sabine Saurugger
    • 2
  1. 1.University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10Germany
  2. 2.Sciences Po Grenoble, BP 48Grenoble

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