Intresseorganisationer och deras politiska strategier – en teoriprövande fallstudie

Sammanfattning: This study will aim to test two different theories on the subject of interest groups and their political work, against a case of a large Swedish interest group. The aim is to see if these two theories are applicable on this case, and if so, they can help to better understand the subject of interest groups and political influence. The first theory of the study is a bit more evolved and gives room for interest groups to act different in different situations, while the second theory is a bit smaller and expect interest groups to act different because of what group type they are. The theoretical framework of the study will build on the research of inside and outside strategies as the main way of explaining the work of interest groups. After the two theories on the subject have been explained in the study, the case will be presented. This case is LO, which is a large Swedish trade union with strong bonds to the social democrat party in Sweden. The political work of the case will then be compared to the two theories to see if their assumptions on how interest organizations act, is correct in this case. The research question in this study is therefore: Can these two theories on interest group activity be applied on the case of LO? The study will due to this be labeled as a theory testing case study. The main goal is to see if these two theories are able to explain the political activity of LO. At end of the study the results, and the answer to the research question will be presented. The two theories can be applied on the case, but not without problem. The studied case is in some ways acting exactly the way the two theories expect it to, but in other ways it acts completely opposite to what they expect. They both are right, in some aspects, and wrong in some. The first theory, however, is more right due to its element of adjustment to the situation. However, LO is a unique case, and the theories still result in a lot of interesting conclusions.