By Elisabeth R. Gerber
Do small yet filthy rich curiosity teams effect referendums, poll tasks, and different kinds of direct laws on the fee of the wider public curiosity? Many observers argue that they do, usually lamenting that direct laws has, sarcastically, been captured by means of the exact same filthy rich pursuits whose strength it was once designed to cut down. Elisabeth Gerber, besides the fact that, demanding situations that argument. during this first systematic examine of ways funds and curiosity crew strength really impact direct laws, she unearths that giant spending doesn't inevitably suggest great influence.
Gerber bases her findings on vast surveys of the actions and motivations of curiosity teams and on shut exam of crusade finance files from 168 direct laws campaigns in 8 states. Her examine confirms what such prosperous pursuits because the coverage undefined, trial legal professional institutions, and tobacco businesses have discovered through defeats on the poll field: if electorate don't like a proposed new legislations, even a pricey, high-profile crusade won't lead them to switch their brain. She demonstrates, in spite of the fact that, that those fiscal curiosity teams have massive good fortune in utilizing direct laws to dam tasks that others are presenting and to exert strain on politicians. in contrast, citizen curiosity teams with broad-based aid and demanding organizational assets have confirmed to be super powerful in utilizing direct laws to move new legislation. truly written and argued, this can be a significant theoretical and empirical contribution to our knowing of the function of electorate and arranged pursuits within the American legislative strategy.
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Additional info for The populist paradox: interest group influence and the promise of direct legislation
Example text
7, the Interest Group is also unable to achieve indirect influence by threatening the Legislature. This time, however, the reason has nothing to do with costs. 21 When player preferences are configured in this way, the Interest Group cannot propose any initiative that it and the Voter both prefer to the Legislature’s ideal policy. Indeed, if the Interest Group proposes any initiative that is to the right of L, it will lose. Therefore, the Legislature passes its law at its ideal point L = LEG and ignores the Interest Group’s potential threat.
For example, one strategy for achieving direct modifying influence involves proposing, qualifying, campaigning in support of, and defending an initiative. Because a group that pursues this strategy is responsible for all aspects of the measure at all stages of the process, it must overcome numerous hurdles. Other strategies require less extensive effort. A second strategy, for example, involves making a campaign contribution in favor of an existing initiative. Because they are not responsible for drafting or qualifying the measure, groups that undertake such a strategy would need to overcome only a subset of institutional and behavioral hurdles.
The profit-maximizing firm analogy is useful because it emphasizes the constrained maximization problem that both interest groups and profit-maximizing firms confront. Interest groups attempt to achieve their political influence by choosing among alternative political strategies. Firms attempt to earn profits by choosing among alternative modes of production. Both interest groups and firms evaluate the expected costs and benefits of alternative courses of action and choose those that promise the greatest net benefits.
