Interest groups in multiple streams: specifying their involvement in the framework

Patrycja Rozbicka*, Florian Spohr

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Although interests inhabit a central place in the multiple streams framework (MSF), interest groups have played only a minor role in theoretical and empirical studies until now. In Kingdon’s original conception, organized interests are a key variable in the politics stream. Revisiting Kingdon’s concept with a particular focus on interest groups and their activities—in different streams and at various levels—in the policy process, we take this argument further. In particular, we argue that specifying groups’ roles in other streams adds value to the explanatory power of the framework. To do this, we look at how interest groups affect problems, policies, and politics. The influence of interest groups within the streams is explained by linking the MSF with literature on interest intermediation. We show that depending on the number of conditions and their activity level, interest groups can be involved in all three streams. We illustrate this in case studies reviewing labor market policies in Germany and chemicals regulation at the European level.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)55-69
Number of pages15
JournalPolicy Sciences
Volume49
Issue number1
Early online date18 Aug 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2016

Bibliographical note

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11077-015-9227-8

Keywords

  • chemicals regulation
  • European Union
  • Germany
  • interest groups
  • labor market
  • multiple streams

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