Group Politics

Group Politics and Social Movements in Canada, Second Edition updates and expands its exploration of a wide range of organized group and social movement activity in Canadian politics. Particularly distinctive is the inclusion of Quebec nationalism and Aboriginal politics. Many other areas of collective activity are also included: the Occupy movement and anti-poverty organizing, ethnocultural political mobilization, disability, lesbian and gay politics, feminism, farmers and organized interests in agriculture, Christian evangelical groups, environment, and health movements. Contributors to the collection employ a number of theoretical perspectives from political science and sociology to describe the evolution of organized groups and movements and to evaluate successes in exercising influence on Canadian politics. Each chapter provides an overview of the group or movement along with an account of its main networks and organizations, strategies, goals, successes, and failures.

Group Politics in UN Multilateralism provides a new perspective on diplomacy and negotiation. UN multilateralism is shaped by long-standing group dynamics as well as shifting, ad-hoc groupings. These intergroup dynamics are key to understanding diplomatic practice at the UN.

With its broad spectrum of scholarship on interest groups past and present, Interest Group Politics brings together noted political scientists to provide comprehensive coverage and cutting-edge research on the role and impact of interest groups in U.S. politics, all geared to an undergraduate audience. In the wake of the Citizens United decision and the growth of lobbying into a multi-billion dollar industry, this trusted classic provides students with a guide to the influence and reach of interest groups. The Ninth Edition offers 15 new contributions on a variety of topics including organized labor, the LGBT movement, religious lobbying, the Tea Party, the tobacco industry, the role of “dark money” in campaign funding, the profession of lobbying, and advocacy and inequality. Each chapter is written by an expert in the field and carefully edited for clarity and cohesion by the editors Allan J Cigler, Burdett A. Loomis, and Anthony J. Nownes.

Interest organizations have always assumed a prominent place in European politics because they link states with citizens, institutionalize the resolution of social conflicts, regulate important sectors of the economy and society, contribute to workable policy outcomes and socialize members into democratic politics. However, the plethora of interest group studies that exist have not consolidated our understanding of these actors. These analyses have been subject to the vagaries of different theoretical perspectives and vary greatly in their conceptual and methodological frameworks. Consequently, a not always complementary and fragmented series of findings has emerged. This book is a systematic and comprehensive effort at investigating and integrating the state of the art in European interest group research. Combining the analysis of interest group politics in the EU with the comparative study of interest organizations, the book seeks to identify the areas about which there is consolidated knowledge, that are marked by controversies, in which considerable uncertainty exists, that have been omitted from research programs and that ought to be part of future studies. Thereby, it provides a general reflection on how the study of interest group politics can be improved by linking it to the comparative study of governance. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Canadian politics has been fundamentally changed by the growing influence of pressure groups. Their expanded role in shaping public policy is feared by some as a threat to political parties. Others welcome pressure groups as the most effective means of communicating with political leaders and government officials. All agree, though, that with the mass media, pressure groups have opened significant issues to major public debate. Women's issues, environmental concerns, language rights,free trade, and many other topics have been widely debated as the result of the intervention of pressure groups. Since its first publication in 1986, this book has been accepted as the major study of the full range of Canadian pressure groups and the part they play in making public policy. It addresses such important questions as: What are pressure groups? Why have they acquired so much influence? Do we really need them? And if so, why? What dangers do they pose for Canadian democracy? How can they be safely absorbed into our political system? The text argues that pressure groups are essential in any modern state and that they have enhanced, not undermined, Canadian democracy. This second edition addresses these questions in light of the rapid development of Canadian pressure group behaviour since the mid-1980s. Among the most important changes that are discussed are groups' intervention in constitutional politics; their growing use of the courts; their participationin election advertising; and the impact of international lobbying. Government concern over the public funding of groups is reviewed, as is the implementation of the federal government's Lobbyists' Registration Act. This book also offers an historical survey and framework - including a new approach to the classification of groups - that can be used to illuminate today's trends and evaluate measures designed to harness their political power.

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.