How do interest groups legitimate their policy advocacy? Reconsidering linkage and internal democracy in times of digital disruption
| Published date | 01 March 2018 |
| Author | Darren Halpin,Bert Fraussen |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12364 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
How do interest groups legitimate their policy
advocacy? Reconsidering linkage and internal
democracy in times of digital disruption
Bert Fraussen
1,2
| Darren Halpin
2
1
Institute of Public Administration, Leiden
University, Leiden, The Netherlands
2
Research School of Social Sciences,
Australian National University, Canberra,
Australia
Correspondence
Darren Halpin, Research School of Social
Sciences, Australian National University,
Acton 0200, ACT Australia.
Email: darren.halpin@anu.edu.au
Funding information
Australian Research Council, Grant/Award
number: DP140104097: The organised
interest system in Australian Public Policy
The ongoing embrace of interest groups as agents capable of
addressing democratic deficits in governing institutions is in large
part because they are assumed to contribute democratic legitimacy
to policy processes. Nonetheless, they face the challenge of legiti-
mating their policy advocacy in democratic terms, clarifying what
makes them legitimate partners in governance. In this article we
suggest that digital innovations have disrupted the established
mechanisms of legitimation. While the impact of this disruption is
most easily demonstrated in the rise of a small number of ‘digital
natives’, we argue that the most substantive impact has been on
more conventional groups, which typically follow legitimation
logics of either representation or solidarity. While several legacy
groups are experimenting with new legitimation approaches, the
opportunities provided by technology seem to offer more organi-
zational benefits to groups employing the logic of solidarity, and
appear less compatible with the more traditional logic of
representation.
1|INTRODUCTION: DIGITAL DISRUPTION, POLICY ADVOCACY AND
DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMATION
Discussions of digital disruption are ubiquitous. In the context of markets for goods and services as diverse as taxis,
accommodation and holiday bookings, there is clear evidence of the disruption to ‘legacy’industries enabled by dig-
ital technologies. Firms like AirBnB, Tripadvisor and Uber have affected substantial disruption to existing business
models in these industries. In this article we consider the disruptive impact of digital technologies on the organiza-
tion and practices of interest groups. One can imagine a range of ways in which the impact of digital innovations
might be felt. Fung et al. (2013) examine six such impacts, including the way digital technologies help citizens to
engage directly with political elites or the ways that they enable interest groups to shape public opinion and mobi-
lize their constituents. Recent scholarly work has provided ample examination of the utilization of social media and
ICTs by interest groups to communicate with diverse audiences, such as politicians, members and other groups
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12364
Public Administration. 2018;96:23–35. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 23
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