The Role of Interest Groups in Collective Interest Policy-Making: Consumer Protection in Norway and the United States

ABSTRACT Issues of collective interest, to the extent they are brought into the public policy‐making arena, pose serious theoretical challenges for democratic societies ‐ challenges primarily associated with interest representation and agenda setting practices. The present article takes these challenges as its point of departure, focusing in particular on the role interest groups may play in meeting these. Using consumer protection policy‐making in Norway and the United States for illustrative purposes, the article explores the characteristics of consumer protection as a collective interest and then sets forth six alternative means of such interest articulation. The actual infrastructure of consumer interest representation in the Norwegian and U.S. cases is then examined, revealing major differences, and the implications of these differences are considered. The principal conclusion is that independent consumer associations are in all likelihood a sufficient, but certainly not necessary, condition for the realization of public consumer protection policies. The same also applies to a corporatist interest group arrangement as practised in Norway. Additional observations are offered regarding patterns of agenda setting and possible policy convergence in advanced industrial societies.