Download or read book Lobbying America written by Benjamin C. Waterhouse and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lobbying America tells the story of the political mobilization of American business in the 1970s and 1980s. Benjamin Waterhouse traces the rise and ultimate fragmentation of a broad-based effort to unify the business community and promote a fiscally conservative, antiregulatory, and market-oriented policy agenda to Congress and the country at large. Arguing that business's political involvement was historically distinctive during this period, Waterhouse illustrates the changing power and goals of America's top corporate leaders. Examining the rise of the Business Roundtable and the revitalization of older business associations such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Waterhouse takes readers inside the mind-set of the powerful CEOs who responded to the crises of inflation, recession, and declining industrial productivity by organizing an effective and disciplined lobbying force. By the mid-1970s, that coalition transformed the economic power of the capitalist class into a broad-reaching political movement with real policy consequences. Ironically, the cohesion that characterized organized business failed to survive the ascent of conservative politics during the 1980s, and many of the coalition's top goals on regulatory and fiscal policies remained unfulfilled. The industrial CEOs who fancied themselves the "voice of business" found themselves one voice among many vying for influence in an increasingly turbulent and unsettled economic landscape. Complicating assumptions that wealthy business leaders naturally get their way in Washington, Lobbying America shows how economic and political powers interact in the American democratic system.

Download or read book The Business of America is Lobbying written by Lee Drutman and published by Studies in Postwar American Po. This book was released on 2015 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corporate lobbyists are everywhere in Washington. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 represent business. The largest companies now have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them. How did American businesses become so invested in politics? And what does all their money buy? Drawing on extensive data and original interviews with corporate lobbyists, The Business of America is Lobbying provides a fascinating and detailed picture of what corporations do in Washington, why they do it, and why it matters. Prior to the 1970s, very few corporations had Washington offices. But a wave of new government regulations and declining economic conditions mobilized business leaders. Companies developed new political capacities, and managers soon began to see public policy as an opportunity, not just a threat. Ever since, corporate lobbying has become increasingly more pervasive, more proactive, and more particularistic. Lee Drutman argues that lobbyists drove this development, helping managers to see why politics mattered, and how proactive and aggressive engagement could help companies' bottom lines. All this lobbying doesn't guarantee influence. Politics is a messy and unpredictable bazaar, and it is more competitive than ever. But the growth of lobbying has driven several important changes that make business more powerful. The status quo is harder to dislodge; policy is more complex; and, as Congress increasingly becomes a farm league for K Street, more and more of Washington's policy expertise now resides in the private sector. These and other changes increasingly raise the costs of effective lobbying to a level only businesses can typically afford. Lively and engaging, rigorous and nuanced, The Business of America is Lobbying will change how we think about lobbying-and how we might reform it.

Download or read book Interest Groups Lobbying and Participation in America written by Kenneth M. Goldstein and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-08-13 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding why individuals participate in politics demands attention to more than just individual attributes and attitudes. Similarly, understanding how interest groups influence policy-making demands attention to more than just the financial donations and direct activities of Washington-based lobbyists. To answer fundamental questions about what determines when and why people participate in politics and how organized interests go about trying to influence legislative decision-making we must understand how and why political leaders recruit which members of the public into the political arena. Looking from the bottom up with survey data and from the top down with data from interest group interviews, Kenneth Goldstein develops and tests a theory of how tactical choices in a grass-roots campaign are made. In doing so, he demonstrates that outside lobbying activities deserve a place in any correctly-specified model of interest group influence, political participation, or legislative decision-making.

Download or read book The Israel Lobby and U S Foreign Policy written by John J. Mearsheimer and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-09-04 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Israel Lobby," by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory. Originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, it provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and expand their argument and confront recent developments in Lebanon and Iran. They describe the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel and argues that this support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds. This exceptional relationship is due largely to the political influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. Mearsheimer and Walt provocatively contend that the lobby has a far-reaching impact on America's posture throughout the Middle East—in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and the policies it has encouraged are in neither America's national interest nor Israel's long-term interest. The lobby's influence also affects America's relationship with important allies and increases dangers that all states face from global jihadist terror. Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing declared, "Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntington's ‘The Clash of Civilizations?' in 1993 has an academic essay detonated with such force." The publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is certain to widen the debate and to be one of the most talked-about books in foreign policy.

Download or read book Lobbying in America written by Ronald J. Hrebenar and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-03-03 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive presentation of the way lobbying and interest-based political activism works in the United States. Lobbying in America: A Reference Handbook offers readers an insightful survey of interest group politics in the United States—the strategies, techniques, and impact both positive and negative. Written by one of the nation's premier scholars on the subject, it reveals the inner workings of the lobbying process like no other volume before it. Lobbying in America traces the growth of interest groups from the nation's infancy to the present. The book examines a range of related issues and controversies, including infamous scandals, attempts to regulate lobbying, and the overriding constitutional question of whether limiting money in politics is an infringement of free speech. Comparisons to lobbying systems in other countries as well as listings of key organizations and an extensive bibliography round out a volume that could not be more timely.

Download or read book Interest Groups and Lobbying written by Thomas T. Holyoke and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2014-02-18 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interest groups and lobbyists play a crucial role in how public policy is made in the United States' representative democracy. By helping citizens organize and pursue their self-interests in the political arena, interest groups and lobbyists are an alternative but very effective form of representation. However, the adversarial nature of interest groups often fuels voter discomfort with the political process. Interest Groups and Lobbying is an accessible and comprehensive text that examines the crux of this conflict. Pulling together two areas of interest group research—why advocacy organizations form and how they are able to gain influence in Washington, DC—Thomas T. Holyoke shows students the inner workings of interest groups in the United States. Using case studies to clarify and expand on the issues surrounding lobbying and group action in federal, state, and local government, Holyoke explores how we can use interest groups and their adversarial impulse to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Download or read book So Damn Much Money written by Robert G. Kaiser and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-02-09 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a New Foreword In So Damn Much Money, veteran Washington Post editor and correspondent Robert Kaiser gives a detailed account of how the boom in political lobbying since the 1970s has shaped American politics by empowering special interests, undermining effective legislation, and discouraging the country’s best citizens from serving in office. Kaiser traces this dramatic change in our political system through the colorful story of Gerald S. J. Cassidy, one of Washington’s most successful lobbyists. Superbly told, it’s an illuminating dissection of a political system badly in need of reform.

Download or read book Lobbying and Policy Change written by Frank R. Baumgartner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 2008 election season, politicians from both sides of the aisle promised to rid government of lobbyists’ undue influence. For the authors of Lobbying and Policy Change, the most extensive study ever done on the topic, these promises ring hollow—not because politicians fail to keep them but because lobbies are far less influential than political rhetoric suggests. Based on a comprehensive examination of ninety-eight issues, this volume demonstrates that sixty percent of recent lobbying campaigns failed to change policy despite millions of dollars spent trying. Why? The authors find that resources explain less than five percent of the difference between successful and unsuccessful efforts. Moreover, they show, these attempts must overcome an entrenched Washington system with a tremendous bias in favor of the status quo. Though elected officials and existing policies carry more weight, lobbies have an impact too, and when advocates for a given issue finally succeed, policy tends to change significantly. The authors argue, however, that the lobbying community so strongly reflects elite interests that it will not fundamentally alter the balance of power unless its makeup shifts dramatically in favor of average Americans’ concerns.

Download or read book Guide to Interest Groups and Lobbying in the United States written by Burdett A. Loomis and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2011-06-21 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guide to Interest Groups and Lobbying in the United States offers a thematic analysis of interest groups and lobbying in American politics and over the course of American political history. It explores how interest groups have organized and articulated their support for numerous issues, and have they grown – both in numbers and range of activities – to become an integral part of the U.S. political system. Beginning with the foundations of interest groups during the late 19th Century Gilded Age, to the contemporary explosive growth of lobbying, Political Action Committees, and new forms of interest group cyberpolitics, readers are provided with multiple approaches to understanding the complex and changing interest advocacy sphere. This authoritative work from CQ Press will find an audience not only with students and scholars, but also with policy advocates.

Download or read book LGBTQ Lobbying in the United States written by Christopher L. Pepin-Neff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-26 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LGBTQ Lobbying in the United States argues that the issues and tactics prioritized by the mainstream gay lobbying community fail to serve LGBTQ interests and are complicit in perpetuating heteronormative power dynamics and institutions that render queer and trans people vulnerable to structural oppression. The book posits that there are different LGBTQ lobbying communities—a dominant gay mainstream lobbying category, whose work advances heteronormative ideals, and a second category of LGBTQ lobbying that is intersectional and challenges hegemonic heterosexual institutions. Analysis in the book builds on existing public policy literature and is aided by the author's practitioner experience in lobbying for LGBTQ issues in Washington, D.C. over the past 20 years. This book is suitable as a textbook for students and researchers in LGBTQ studies, U.S. politics, and gender studies. The book will also appeal to activists and professionals in political lobbying.

Download or read book Total Lobbying written by Anthony J. Nownes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-10-02 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a scholarly yet accessible overview of the role of lobbying in American politics. It draws upon extant research as well as original data gathered from interviews with numerous lobbyists across the United States. It describes how lobbyists do their work within all branches of government, at the national, state, and local levels. It thus offers a substantially broader view of lobbying than is available in much of the research literature. Although tailored for students taking courses on interest group politics, Total Lobbying offers an indispensable survey of the field for scholars and others concerned with this important facet of American politics.

Download or read book Lobbying America written by Benjamin C. Waterhouse and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ""Lobbying America" explores the fractious history of business influence over American politics and brilliantly charts the business establishment's post-1970 counteroffensive against what its leaders saw as oppressive taxation, regulatory overreach, and an arrogant union movement. Attuned to the political successes and failures of organized business, Waterhouse has produced a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the United States' late twentieth-century embrace of free market ideology."--Edward Balleisen, Duke University "In crisp, lucid prose, Waterhouse makes a convincing case for the success of pro-business mobilization during the 1970s and 80s. Waterhouse shows corporate lobbyists reacting to and learning from their opponents in the environmental, consumer, and labor movements, and ultimately leveraging economic upheavals to split those forces and control the terms of debate, if not always the outcomes. This go-to book integrates a lively archival account into the larger narrative of conservative counterrevolution."--Bethany Moreton, University of Georgia "This outstanding book provides an important and surprisingly underexamined history of the political mobilization of the business community during the 1970s."--Julian Zelizer, Princeton University ""Lobbying America" makes a superb contribution to our understanding of the political mobilization of business in the 1970s and after. With its groundbreaking archival work on the rise of the Business Roundtable, the evolution of the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, and the fissures that emerged in the business coalition during the 1980s, this is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of the power of business in our political life today."--Kim Phillips-Fein, author of "Invisible Hands"

Download or read book Transforming America s Israel Lobby written by Dan Fleshler and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proposes an alternative pro-Israel lobby that liberals can support.

Download or read book Interest Groups and Lobbying written by Thomas T. Holyoke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interest Groups and Lobbying shows how political organizations and their lobbyists play a crucial role in how policy is made in the United States. It cuts through the myths and misconceptions about interest groups and lobbyists with an accessible and comprehensive text supported by real world examples and the latest research. New to the Second Edition • Fully updates and expands the discussion of social media and other online activity engaged in by interest groups, showing that they have become more sophisticated in their use of the internet – especially social media – for keeping current members informed and for their advocacy work. • New case studies on more recent advocacy efforts. • Updated data used in the book, including: • Total number and types of interest groups lobbying in Washington, DC • Total number and types of interest groups lobbying in the fifty states • Data on campaign contributions • Data on amicus briefs and case sponsorship • Data on stages of the lawmaking process where interest groups appear to lobby the most • New data on revolving-door lobbyists

Download or read book Revolving Door Lobbying written by Timothy LaPira and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2017-06-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades Washington has seen an alarming rise in the number of "revolving door lobbyists"—politicians and officials cashing in on their government experience to become influence peddlers on K Street. These lobbyists, popular wisdom suggests, sell access to the highest bidder. Revolving Door Lobbying tells a different, more nuanced story. As an insider interviewed in the book observes, where the general public has the "impression that lobbyists actually get things done, I would say 90 percent of what lobbyists do is prevent harm to their client from the government." Drawing on extensive new data on lobbyists’ biographies and interviews with dozens of experts, authors Timothy M. LaPira and Herschel F. Thomas establish the facts of the revolving door phenomenon—facts that suggest that, contrary to widespread assumptions about insider access, special interests hire these lobbyists as political insurance against an increasingly dysfunctional, unpredictable government. With their insider experience, revolving door lobbyists offer insight into the political process, irrespective of their connections to current policymakers. What they provide to their clients is useful and marketable political risk-reduction. Exploring this claim, LaPira and Thomas present a systematic analysis of who revolving door lobbyists are, how they differ from other lobbyists, what interests they represent, and how they seek to influence public policy. The first book to marshal comprehensive evidence of revolving door lobbying, LaPira and Thomas revise the notion that lobbyists are inherently and institutionally corrupt. Rather, the authors draw a complex and sobering picture of the revolving door as a consequence of the eroding capacity of government to solve the public’s problems.

Download or read book Lobbying for Higher Education written by Constance Ewing Cook and published by Vanderbilt University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historically, many faculty and administrators in higher education have regarded themselves as above the fray--part of the national interest, not a special interest--and considered lobbying a dirty business unworthy of their lofty enterprise. Now that academia no longer enjoys all the respect and good will that federal policy makers once afforded it, that attitude has changed. The Republican sweep of the 1994 Congressional elections served as a wake-up call for the higher education community. In response, it made a spirited effort to gain attention for its own policy preferences. Lobbying for Higher Education is about how the major higher education associations and the constituent American colleges and universities try to influence federal policy, especially congressional policy. In clear prose Cook explains how the higher education community organizes itself in Washington, how it lobbies, and how its major interest groups are perceived both by their own members and by public officials. The book focuses on the crucial development in 1995-1996 of a new lobbying paradigm, which included the greater use of campus-based resources and ad hoc coalitions. The most engrossing part of its story is higher education's creative response to the policy turmoil and disruption of the status quo that resulted from the shift in congressional party control. The author, Constance Cook, uses sources unique to this project: over 1,500 survey responses from college and university presidents (a 62% return rate) and nearly 150 interviews with institutional and association leaders. Fortuitously, the 1994 electoral upheaval provided her with an opportunity to capture, analyze, and interpret the responses of her subjects in a period of unusually sweeping change. Lobbying for Higher Education is a timely book with an interesting and important story at its core.

Download or read book Outside Looking In written by Nicholas P. Lovrich and published by Washington State University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent advent of gridlock and hyper-partisanship in the United States Congress has raised questions about whether similar divides are occurring in state governments, and if so, why? To find out, researchers--working in 2018 and 2019 under a National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) grant--conducted a survey of registered lobbyists and public agency legislative liaison officers in all fifty states. They received over 1,200 completed surveys. The researchers hope that understanding reasons behind politicians’ inability to demonstrate civility and reach bipartisan agreements will yield effective, purposeful interventions. In Outside Looking In, scholars from across the country interpret the survey results. Using a variety of lenses, they present unique perspectives, revealing both regional and national insights. Chapters address findings on a variety of topics, including effects of political culture heritage on perceptions of civil discourse phenomena and the impact of legislative professionalization; sentiments about civil discourse and perceptions of their own state legislature among lobbyists; a multivariate cross-state comparison of the relative impact of political culture, professionalism, and term limits; presumed and actual impact of term limits on civility; a comparison of lobbyists with and without prior legislative service; and effects of the rural/urban divide and state-level inequality across the states. Also discussed are the efforts by the National Conference of State Legislatures to advance the cause of civil discourse, and NICD interventions to support civil discourse in state legislatures. Offering rare insights on discourse in state legislatures, this work is a must-read for political science scholars studying state governments, state-level lobbying, and civility in government, as well as for state legislators and public interest groups committed to enhancing civility in government.