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.
Leech, Beth L. : Texas A&M University
Beth L. Leech is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Texas A&M.
Summary
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.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Ch. 1. Progress and Confusion
Ch. 2. Barriers to Accumulation
Ch. 3. The Rise and Decline of the Group Approach
Ch. 4. Collective Action and the New Literature on Interest Groups
Ch. 5. Bias and Diversity in the Interest-Group System
Ch. 6. The Dynamics of Bias
Ch. 7. Building a Literature on Lobbying, One Case Study at a Time
Ch. 8. Surveys of Interest-Group Activities
Ch. 9. Learning from Experience
Appendix Articles on Interest Groups Published in the American Political Science Review, 1950-1995
References
Index
