Emerging Interest Groups in Romania

Abstract

Abstract : A part of civil society, interest groups are organizations which have some autonomy from government or political parties and.. try to influence public policy1. In relation to modern democracy, one can start with James Madison, a Founding Father and also President of the United States. He very logically explains in Federalist 10 that democracies are, due to human nature, representations of interests and interest groups. Stating that interest groups can exist, and even that they naturally find a place in a democratic political system, does not, however, imply that they will organize spontaneously or quickly. By conducting studies of the formation and formal organization of interest groups in the United States, David Truman suggests that group formation takes place only when an interest common to the group is disturbed by economic, social, political or technological changes. A classic example is of organized labor unions. Industrialization disturbed lives of the working class; and in time the workers organized in an attempt to improve their conditions. By uniting, the workers expected to become a strong block, capable of dealing with management. Eventually unions proved to be influential politically as the idea spread to all kinds of workers - agricultural, semi-professional, etc. Unions became commonplace and powerful in many of the world's democracies, due to their ability to mobilize a large constituency of voters that in a united form could have a strong political influence. A group of people perceived a threat, and in reaction to that threat they organized an interest group: the labor union.