Interest groups are important players in liberal democracies. Trade unions seek influence on labour market politics, business groups are active in debates on market regulation and environmental groups try to make climate policy a central governmental priority. Studying which groups are successful in influencing policy is a core issue for political science.
Interest groups operate in complex political environments and are active in relation to the bureaucracy, parliament, and the media. While the administrative arena has traditionally played the most central role for interest group influence in European countries, the media and the parliament have in recent decades become increasingly important arenas. Consequently, it is particularly relevant to examine whether these arenas give access to previously low influence groups – or whether the same groups are successful across different arenas. The INTERARENA project aimed to explain the political role of interest groups in the administrative, the parliamentary and the media arena.