A Price to Pay? The Backsides of the Privileged Access to the Political System

Classical corporatism has been supplemented in the Scandinavian countries by a pattern of privileged pluralism. Under these new conditions, some interest organizations are granted a privileged position in policymaking compared to less resourceful organizations. Based on the concepts of group genesis and dynamic coupling, I argue that historically embedded dynamic coupling can affect the autonomy of the interest organization, creating a difficult dilemma; that is, the difficulty of being an independent organization and at the same time having privileged access. To illustrate the dilemma, the case of one privileged organization, The Danish Consumer Council, is presented.