Authors: Duhamel & Mény
Summary: In a 2400-word entry the concept of interest, related to industrial societies evolution, is used to explain many other important social phenomena, e.g. power relations. The author describes the concept according to its basic features, its composition, its functions and goals in the relationships with the state.
An interest group is a collective life phenomenon. It is based on a community bounded by associative links, i.e. by sharing the same interests, which possesses a group conscience and tends to become a social entity and therefore, to institutionalize. It is a structure through which exchanges are done. In this perspective an interest group differs from a pressure group, the latter acting on political power to get category advantages.
The author admits the existence of a different perception of pressure group in European and Anglo-Saxon traditions, the latter beingwell disposed in accepting pressure groups as an active component of social life to the extent that the difference between the two kinds of group loses its relevance.
Trade Unions are the real expression of interest groups because they protect the interests of whole social categories (workers, consumers, ...). To do so Trade Unions establish action strategies taking either collaborative or opposition (counterpower) behaviours towards the Governement. The collaborative strategy consists in the interest groups participation to public policy making process they are interested in. In politologic theory this phenomenon is called neo-corporatism (Schmitter, Lembruch, Mâny, ...).