A preliminary ordering of policy network labels

Abstract

Abstract This introduction seeks to sketch out the relationship between a variety of terms that are used in contemporary discussion of the interaction between Government/State and interest groups. It starts with a short reflection on the main theories of interest intermediation – pluralism and corporatism – and argues for reserving the term policy network as a generic label embracing different types of network relationship. This piece thus attempts to record the variety of labels currently used to describe state/interest relations, to show the overlap between certain of these labels, and how they relate one to the other. The existing confusion of labels signal a greater variety than they deliver.