American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

SUMMARY

It is common to argue that elected offi cials are letting inter-
est groups defi ne their agenda. However, the evidence does
not support these claims: there is no correlation between the
amount of money spent on lobbying and a group’s success,
nor is there conclusive evidence that group lobbying infl u-
ences policy. Groups are generally most infl uential when the
issues attract little public attention, and when the issue does
not have organized opposition.

CRITICAL THINKING AND DISCUSSION

A friend complains to you about the enormous power of
organized interests in American politics, citing a group’s
recent victory in getting members of Congress to approve
its policy proposal. Present three other possible explana-
tions for this victory that are not related to the political
power of the interest group.

PRACTICE QUIZ QUESTIONS

10. Interest groups generally lobby __ in
    government.
    a) their opponents
    b) their friends

c) the undecided

d) the newly elected

e) the less informed

11. Interest groups are more likely to succeed when their
    request has __ salience; and when it has
    __ confl ict.
    a) low; little
    b) high; little
    c) low; high
    d) high; high
    e) high; zero

S PRACTICE ONLINE

“Big Think” video exercise: How Do Lobbies Aff ect the

Way We Eat?

HOW MUCH POWER DO INTEREST GROUPS HAVE?

E Evaluate interest group infl uence. Pages 246–50

STUDY GUIDE|^253

SUGGESTED READING

Ainsworth, Scott. Analyzing Interest Groups: Group Infl uence on

People and Policies. New York: Norton, 2002.

Baumgartner, Jeff rey, M. Berry, Marie Hojnacki, David C. Kimball,

and Beth L. Leech. Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins,

Who Loses, and Why. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

2009.

Carpenter, Daniel. The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy:

Reputations, Networks, and Policy Innovation in Executive

Agencies, 1862–1928. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

Press, 2002.

Kollman, Kenneth. Outside Lobbying: Public Opinion and Interest

Group Strategies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,

1998.

Lowi, Theodore. The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the

United States. New York: Norton, 1979.

Olson, Mancur. The Logic of Collective Action, 2nd ed. Cambridge,

MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.

Schattschneider, E. E. The Semi-Sovereign People. New York:

Harper and Row, 1959.

Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and John Tierney. Organized Interests

and American Democracy. New York: HarperCollins, 1986.

Stigerwalt, Amy. The Battle over the Bench: Senators, Interest

Groups, and Lower Court Confi rmations. Charlottesville:

University of Virginia Press, 2010.

Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry Brady. Voice

and Equality: Civic Participation in America. Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press, 1995.

Walker, Jack. Mobilizing Interest Groups in America. Ann Arbor:

University of Michigan Press, 1991.