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Interest Group Politics (interest + group_politics)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting75%

Selected Abstracts

A Model of Inequality and Interest Group Politics

ECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 2 2001
Inderjit Kohli
In this paper we examine inequality of process and inequality of outcomes in interest group politics. The model has interest groups that compete for rents in a non-cooperative game. It allows for a self-interested rent-setting political decision-maker, and democratic or popular pressure as a check on that self-interest. We consider differences in the effectiveness and pre-commitment abilities of interest groups. We show that: (i) the costs of influence activities may be highest when groups are relatively equal in their effectiveness; (ii) if social welfare incorporates enough concern for equity of outcomes, that ranking is reversed; (iii) depending on voter responsiveness to rent-setting, the political decision-maker may set rents to be higher or lower, when increases in inequality of effectiveness lower the unit costs of rent-seeking. [source]

Ideas and Environmental Standard-Setting: A Comparative Study of Regulation of the Pulp and Paper Industry

GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2002
Kathryn Harrison
This article examines the policy responses of Canada, Sweden, and the United States to the discovery of dioxins in pulp mill effluents and paper products, with particular attention to the impact of science and the scientific community on national environmental standards. Important areas of policy divergence were found, despite considerable scientific consensus among environmental scientists in the three jurisdictions, as the potential force of shared causal knowledge was undermined by competing domestic interests and different institutional contexts for decision-making. This analysis challenges the emphasis of the epistemic community literature on the role of scientists in promoting policy convergence, underscoring the importance of the interaction of ideas, interest group politics, and institutions in public policy-making. [source]

Interests and lobbying in Lithuania: a spectrum of development

JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1-2 2008
Ronald J. Hrebenar
By focusing on the case of Lithuania, this paper develops a framework for understanding the development and characteristics of interest groups and the broader category of interest systems in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. Nearly two decades have passed since the transition to democracy in the former Baltic Soviet republics and Eastern Europe. These nations have established democratic elections, modern judicial systems, institutions of representative government and guarantees of civil rights and civil liberties. Successful democratization, however, also requires the construction of a civil society characterized by open channels of communication between citizens and interests and their governments. Recent studies of the democratization of the former Soviet republics and satellite states in Eastern Europe have rarely addressed the development and role of interest groups and lobbying in these nations. This paper fills this void by presenting the findings of the first major study of interest group politics and lobbying in Lithuania. The major findings are based upon interviews of nearly 50 Lithuanian political, academic, bureaucratic and media elites conducted in the July of 2005. Overall, the lobbying community in Lithuania is underdeveloped, often corrupt, and is negatively perceived by many Lithuanians elites. Much of this is due to the legacy of communism which heavily influences the perception and efficacy of interest groups and lobbying resulting in a suspicion among the public and government officials that has impeded the development of an effective lobbying community. Lithuanian interest groups do not use sophisticated practices or tactics of lobbying; access is largely based on personal connections and corrupt practices. The business community is the most effective lobby due to its contacts and extensive resources; in contrast, the labour lobby is weak due to a hangover from communist times. Looking to the future development of the Lithuanian lobbying community, it is unclear what effect the entry of Lithuania into the European Union (May 2004) will have on the development of interest group activities and lobbying. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]