在民主社會中，許多政策牽涉到權力與資源的配置，並宣稱該政策符合多數人的利益。然而「公共利益」究竟代表誰的利益，而且由誰來界定政策的本質？誰主宰了政策的利益範圍？過去政治科學學者認為政府決策反應人民的需求，政府是被動的決策者。直至一九七０年代學者重新思考國家角色定位，並探討其在政治過程中所扮演的角色，省思決策的內容與本質。而利益團體處於人民與政府之間，代表何種立場參與政策，如何將私利與公益間取得平衡？此乃論證公共利益與民主政治的重要依據。 本文嘗試從利益團體的研究途徑－統合主義與多元主義，來理解「利益」的肇始與驅動，討論私利與公共利益的互動與轉化，在理論與現實運作中存在何種差距與困境，藉此思考利益團體研究所面對的課題。

There are lots of conflicts and interests involved in the process of policy making. People usually declare that what they say or do represent the public opinions. This is an important issue to be reflected upon, especially what is the best policy and who have the right to explain the nature of public interests. There are two approaches in interest-group theories: pluralism and corporatism, both of which were oriented from the West and addressed on the relationships among the interest groups, the mass and the state even though the features of interaction are different. In this paper, I try to elaborate on the definition of interest group, the characters of interest formation in the diversity of political systems, and the role of state in the process of policy making. This author argues that is a inferential dilemma between theoretical structure and the phenomenon. Finally, the insights derived from earlier studies and the restriction about this subject are discussed.