The question of the ‘policy capacity’ of interest groups is increasingly gaining prominence as a key variable in governing and transformative capacities. This raises the issue of whether group policy capacities can be developed. While group scholars have long talked of group capacity, this has largely amounted to compiling a ‘shopping list’ of possible capacities general to all groups. There has not been much attention to variations in capacity among groups, or with the development of capacity by a single group over time. This paper takes a tentative step towards filling this gap.
In pursuing this general line of inquiry we argue that (i) initial ‘selection’ of group type shapes scope of capacity development, (ii) groups seek to adapt capacity to changing policy contexts, and (iii) adaptive efforts are shaped by the ‘legacy’ of the originating type – change is bounded unless the group engages in ‘radical’ organisational changes (e.g. redefinition of entire purpose). This general argument is fleshed out by comparing and contrasting the evolution of the key organic interest groups in both the UK and Denmark
