Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science

by Frank R. Baumgartner, Beth L. Leech

Overview

A generation ago, scholars saw interest groups as the single most important element in the American political system. Today, political scientists are more likely to see groups as a marginal influence compared to institutions such as Congress, the presidency, and the judiciary. Frank Baumgartner and Beth Leech show that scholars have veered from one extreme to another not because of changes in the political system, but because of changes in political science. They review hundreds of books and articles about interest groups from the 1940s to today; examine the methodological and conceptual problems that have beset the field; and suggest research strategies to return interest-group studies to a position of greater relevance.


The authors begin by explaining how the group approach to politics became dominant forty years ago in reaction to the constitutional-legal approach that preceded it. They show how it fell into decline in the 1970s as scholars ignored the impact of groups on government to focus on more quantifiable but narrower subjects, such as collective-action dilemmas and the dynamics of recruitment. As a result, despite intense research activity, we still know very little about how groups influence day-to-day governing. Baumgartner and Leech argue that scholars need to develop a more coherent set of research questions, focus on large-scale studies, and pay more attention to the context of group behavior. Their book will give new impetus and direction to a field that has been in the academic wilderness too long.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691059150
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/12/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Frank R. Baumgartner is Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University. He is the author of Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking and coauthor (with Bryan Jones) of Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Beth L. Leech is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Texas A&M.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Ch. 1	Progress and Confusion	3
Ch. 2	Barriers to Accumulation	22
Ch. 3	The Rise and Decline of the Group Approach	44
Ch. 4	Collective Action and the New Literature on Interest Groups	64
Ch. 5	Bias and Diversity in the Interest-Group System	83
Ch. 6	The Dynamics of Bias	100
Ch. 7	Building a Literature on Lobbying, One Case Study at a Time	120
Ch. 8	Surveys of Interest-Group Activities	147
Ch. 9	Learning from Experience	168
Appendix	Articles on Interest Groups Published in the American Political Science Review, 1950-1995	189
References	197
Index	217

Editorial Reviews

This book is a valuable addition to our discipline. It will be useful for all scholars who study American politics and for most political scientists.
— Political Science Quarterly

Ken W. Kollman