interest

The term interest rather than interest group is often used to denote broad or less-formalized political constituencies, such as the agricultural interest and the environmental interest—segments of society that may include many formal interest groups. Similarly, interest is often used when considering government entities working to influence…

…groups (hence, they are termed interests as opposed to interest groups) but private organizations such as businesses or public entities such as government departments. However, similar to interest groups, they attempt to affect public policy in their favour. Private institutional interests include think tanks such as the Brookings Institution in…