The article focuses on lobbying and public interest. Starting from pluralism - as a tradition of thought and as a set of public values implying respect, diversity and toleration - the article analyses lobbying as a major form of pluralist politics, that however, leading to severe imbalances in political representation. It also breafly compares the Anglo-Saxon tradition of "public interest" and the French ideology of "general interest", as two contrasting philosophies of common welfare. In the last part, it considers the public interest groups or citizens' lobbies a relatively recent addition to the arsenal of pluralist politics. It concludes by questioning if, and to what extent, these groups may constitute an antidote to the fragmenting impact of lobbying and "private" representation.
Lobby; Public interest; Pluralism; Representation; General interest