''Party-Interest Group Relationships in Contemporary Democracies'':A common view in scholarly literature and public debate is that
the relationship between parties and interest groups shapes the nature of democratic governance. Still, party-group relationships
have been largely overlooked by political scientists to date and taken for granted across different countries, institutional
make- ups, types of party systems, and sectors. The proposed research project will advance the state of the art in this field by
seeking to systematically examine the nature, the shaping factors and the consequences for policy- making of party-group relationships
in long-established democracies across the world.