Anthony J. Nownes

Interest Group Activity in the States

This paper utilizes a survey of 595 state lobbyists and 301 state organizations to address four questions about interest group activity in the states: (1) What techniques do groups in the states use? (2) How much do groups in the states do? (3) How do techniques differ across group types? (4) What types of groups are most active in the states? The data suggest that techniques do not differ much across group types; that, contrary to the subgovernment model, very few groups and lobbyists exhibit specialization between or within branches of state government; and that most groups take an interest in a large number of policy proposals However, it appears that groups, though they monitor a large number of policy proposals, are inactive advocates on the vast majority of bills before the state legislature Ironically, we believe that one result of all this group activity may be a tilting of the locus of power in state politics toward elected and appointed officials and away from interest groups.

The Population Ecology of Interest Group Formation: Mobilizing for Gay and Lesbian Rights in the United States, 1950 98

This article analyses the founding rate of nationally active homosexual rights interest groups in the United States for the period 1950–98. Drawing upon the extensive organizational ecology literature, we test the hypothesis that the founding rate of homosexual rights interest groups is related non-monotonically to the number of groups in the population. Our statistical analyses support the hypothesis that as population density rises from very low to high, the founding rate first rises but eventually decreases. This pattern holds when we control for a number of contextual variables. In all, the data provide a great deal of support for the theory of density dependence – a novel approach to the study of interest group formation.

The Population Ecology of Interest Group Death: Gay and Lesbian Rights Interest Groups in the United States, 1945–98

An event-history analysis of the disbandings of nationally active gay and lesbian rights advocacy groups in the United States for the period 1945–98 is presented. Specifically, the hypothesis (which comes from population-ecology theory) is tested that the survival prospects of gay and lesbian rights interest groups are related non-monotonically to the number of groups in the population (i.e., density). The statistical analyses presented support the hypothesis: as density rises from near zero to high, the death rate first decreases but eventually increases. Several other hypotheses are also tested, and among the findings is the following: the survival prospects of gay and lesbian rights interest groups are related non-monotonically to group age – as group age increases, a groups probability of death first rises but then decreases.

MONEY WELL SPENT? An Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Advertorials on Citizen Opinion

Organized interests employ a number of tactics to get what they want. One of the least understood of these tactics is running advertorials—issue advocacy advertisements that are designed to influence citizen opinion. Using a pretest-posttest control group experimental design, the authors examine the effects of advertorials on individual opinions. The authors find that advertorials have an effect on individual opinions but that their effects are different than those of traditional advertisements. Specifically, after examining the effects of an actualExxonMobil advertorial that appeared on the pages of The New York Times, the authors find that advertorials substantially affect levels of individual issue salience but do not affect individual perceptions of the organized interests that run them. The authors also find that those with relatively high levels of trust in the media are more likely than those with lower levels of trust to be influenced by advertorials.

Public Interest Groups and the Road to Survival

This article revisits questions raised by the late Jack Walker in his landmark study of group organization and maintenance and applies them to public interest groups. Data from 62 interviews with public interest group leaders support the conclusion that there are distinct strategies for starting and maintaining such groups. Patrons are crucial for initial mobilization, but the key to long-term public interest group survival is the ability to maintain a large membership base that can be tapped for dues and large contributions.

Policy Conflict and the Structure of Interest Communities A Comparative State Analysis

Drawing on data from a survey of 595 state interest representatives this article asks: Is policy conflict widespread in state interest communities or is it rare due to the isolation of interest organizations in relatively placid niches? Two contending perspectives frame the current debate on this issue. Whereas Browne maintains that balkanization characterizes interest communities, Salisbury and his colleagues suggest that many policy domains feature substantial intergroup interaction, conflict, and cooperation. In all, the data witness relatively high levels of conflict among groups and between groups and other political actors and thus confound the expectations of Brownes niche theory. Nevertheless, the data do not invalidate niche theory. Rather, they suggest that some policy domains are more likely to be characterized by niche politics than others and that the federal government provides more incentives than state governments for groups to seek niches.

An Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Celebrity Support for Political Parties in the United States

In this study, I report the results of a pretest-posttest, control group experiment in which some of my more than 500 respondents were exposed to factual information about celebrity support for political parties and some were not. I proceed from the assumption that celebrity political activity is more likely to influence citizens’ views of political parties than it is to affect either citizens’ vote choices or views of individual candidates. I make this assumption based on the work of Green, Palmquist, and Schickler, who posit that party identification is a social identity. The results provide support for this notion. Specifically, they show that celebrity political activity can indeed influence some citizens’ views of political parties. The results show also that celebrity political activity can affect citizens’ views of politically active celebrities.

Citizen Groups in Big City Politics

CITIZEN GROUPS are qualitatively different from other types of interest groups that are active in American politics. Specifically, unlike labor unions, trade associations, professional associations, and the corporate and governmental institutions that dominate the interest group landscape, citizen groups are open to anyone and everyone (Walker 1983, 393). Indeed, the only prerequisite for joining a citizen group is the ability to shoulder the relatively minimal costs (in terms of time or money) of membership. In this sense, citizen groups have tremendous promise to represent the best of what interest groups have to offer. In short, unlike other types of interest groups, citizen groups have the potential to represent before policymakers the views of ordinary Americans. It is this potential, in fact, that leads some interest group scholars to refer to citizen groups as “public interest” groups. According to Berry (1977, 7), “a public interest group is one that seeks a collective good, the achievement of which will not selectively and materially benefit the membership or activists of the organization.”

Interest Groups and Journalists in the States

Interest groups have many tactics to choose from in pursuing their policy goals. While inside tactics have received considerable scholarly attention, outside tactics have been adopted increasingly by groups of all kinds. We explore one such lobbying tactic by examining the relationship between interest groups and journalists in the American states. Through a survey of statehouse reporters, we find that lobbyists are useful sources of information for these reporters, who even rank them above many more traditional sources of information. Our data also show that contact between interest groups and journalists varies systematically across the states. Specifically, interest groups in states with large or small numbers of interest groups have more contact with journalists than interest groups in states with an average number of groups. Furthermore, journalists in states where interest groups are relatively powerful claim to interact with those groups less than journalists in states where interest groups are less powerful.

An experimental investigation of the effects of interest-group endorsements on poorly aligned partisans in the 2008 presidential election

In this article, we test the effects of interest group endorsements on potential voters in the 2008 presidential election. Specifically, we use a posttest-only, multiple control group experiment (N = 701) to examine how real-world endorsements affect citizens. We find that endorsements have profound effects on some voters. Specifically, we find that interest-group endorsements profoundly affect the candidate evaluations and stated voting preferences of potential voters who are what we call ‘poorly aligned’ – that is, whose stand on the issue on which the endorsement is based (in this case, abortion) does not align ‘properly’ with their party identification and ideology. Moreover, we find that the effects of endorsements are most profound among poorly aligned voters who are not well informed. In all, our results confirm that interest-group endorsements indeed act as cues for voters, even in high-information elections.