Studying the influence of interest groups on non-decisionmaking: challenges and tools in research design

The political science literature has extensively analyzed the political influence of interest groups in recent years. Despite growing scholarly interest into their role in agenda-setting, a significant blind spot remains in understanding their control over non-decisionmaking. This lack of insight into interest groups’ negative agenda-setting influence is primarily due to three fundamental challenges in research design: conceptualization, sampling, and measurement. This paper addresses these hurdles and proposes potential solutions to overcome them. It subsequently demonstrates the applicability of these recommendations within the empirical setting of the European Union. Overall, this paper shows that, despite the inherent difficulties in studying interest groups’ ability to keep their ‘nightmare’ issues off the agenda, these challenges can be overcome, providing valuable insights into this crucial aspect of political behavior.