Interest Group Politics within Kuyper's Sphere Sovereignty

Abstract

Whether viewed as advocating on behalf of “special interests” or the broader “public interest,” interest groups play a central role in modern politics. But theories of pluralism presume that, so long as interest groups have access to participate in the political process, the outcome of the process is, democratically-speaking, good. Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), a Dutch journalist, politician, and theologian, proposed the concepts of “sphere sovereignty” and “public justice” to delineate the proper function and scope of government in relation to other non-governmental institutions (e.g. families, churches, civic associations), and insisted that different institutions in society exercise governance (i.e. sovereignty) over their respective spheres of responsibility.

In my paper I seek to normatively assess the role of interest groups based on Kuyper’s central concepts of sphere sovereignty and public justice. On his view, it would seem that interest groups, to the extent that they themselves recognize and respect the boundaries of their own sphere of sovereignty, serve a legitimate role in the political system by providing informational and mobilization links between government (or the state) and civil society. Further, Kuyper’s religiously-based political views may provide a previously underappreciated perspective from which to seek a solution to a seemingly intractable problem of global politics: how to resolve policy disagreements between groups with deep, paradigm-based differences.

Keywords: interest groups, pluralism, pluralist theory, Abraham Kuyper, Dutch neo-Calvinism, religion, public justice, sphere sovereignty