ABSTRACT
By analysing their intraorganisational structures, this book addresses the question how interest groups build lobbying capacities through their internal organisational structures. It explains why we observe contact, conflict or cooperation of interest groups in the European arena. The book’s underlying rationale is that interest groups are confronted with the task to balance two distinct requirements: the requirement to be efficient organisations and the requirement to include their constituent parts, such as departments and members, when becoming active in European politics. The first chapter presents the rationale, puzzle and research question of the book. It provides the definitions of the terminology which is going to be used throughout the manuscript. It furthermore includes a concise review of the literature in order to show how the study links to existing research in the field.
