Browsing by Subject "Interest groups"
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Item Open Access Donors for democracy? Philanthropy and the challenges facing America in the twenty-first century(Interest Groups and Advocacy, 2018-10-01) Berry, JM; Goss, KAAfter the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, a self-defined “resistance” movement arose to block his agenda. This movement cut across the normal boundaries of political activism to create new forms of advocacy and new models of cooperation. Major components of the resistance were ideological interest groups, women’s organizations, environmentalists, heretofore disengaged Millennials, racial and ethnic groups, community nonprofits, and, ostensibly, foundations and leading philanthropists—those we term “patrons.” We systematically examine the behavior of patrons to determine what role they played at this unique time in American history. We place this research in the context of interest group behavior, asking how patrons may have facilitated representation, altered strategic plans, reoriented advocacy, and repositioned themselves within policy communities supporting similar goals. Our findings undermine the idea that patrons played a central role in the developing resistance to the new administration, despite the fact that the new president was working against their values and the programs they support. However, a non-trivial minority of patrons, both institutional and individual, did mobilize their voice, institutional resources, and coalitions to resist the Trump agenda. These examples allow us to explore how patrons in some conditions might fulfill the roles of interest groups conventionally understood.Item Open Access Foundations as interest groups(Interest Groups and Advocacy, 2018-10-01) Goss, KA; Berry, JMFoundations are traditionally viewed as civic-minded but politically neutral organizations. Yet foundations, if they choose, can become involved in a wide variety of activities aimed at influencing public policy. Here we lay out the rationale for thinking about foundations as interest groups in the American political system. There are differences between conventional interest groups and foundations to be sure, but there are similarities as well. The choices foundations make as to whether to consciously try to influence government appears to be guided by organizational norms, regulatory requirements, and the beliefs of boards, donors, and internal leadership.Item Open Access From the Streets to the Classrooms: The Politics of Education Spending in Mexico(2012) Fernandez, Marco AntonioThis dissertation examines the political determinants of government spending across different levels of education. What are the political motivations that drive budgetary decisions on primary, secondary, and tertiary education? Who are the beneficiaries of these appropriations? Why are they capable of influencing the decisions over appropriations?
I argue that the distribution of education spending across education levels depends on the capacity of organized groups active in this sector to make their demands heard and served by governments. Better organized groups have stronger capacity to take advantage of the electoral concerns of politicians and influence their decisions on educational budgets. I provide evidence to show that, with some exceptions, the teachers' unions in the primary and secondary schools are the most influential organized group in the education sector. By taking their demands out to the streets, by capturing key positions in the education ministries, and by using their mobilization capacity in the electoral arena, teachers have made governments cater to their economic interests, rather than direct resources in ways that would enhance access to and the quality of education.
I test the theoretical arguments using an original dataset incorporating a comprehensive account of all protests, strikes, and other disruptive actions by teachers, university workers, students, and parents in Mexico between 1992 and 2008. The statistical analysis reveals that 1) states with higher levels of teachers' protests receive larger federal education grants, and that 2) subnational authorities spend more on primary and lower secondary as a consequence of the larger disruptive behavior observed in these education levels. Complementary qualitative evidence shows how the teachers' union has captured the education ministries at the federal and the subnational levels, consolidating its influence over education policy. Finally, this study reveals the teachers' union capacity to leverage their participation in electoral politics in order to defend its economic interests.
Item Open Access Public Opinion and Congressional Responsiveness in Policy Making(2017) Richards, Robert MilesMany factors affect responsiveness of elected policy makers to public opinion. While a full understanding of this topic is not possible without decades of careful research, this dissertation examines a few important areas. In particular, I look at the effects of party competition on legislator responsiveness, the dynamics of interest group politics and the ability of some voters to obtain disproportionate representation, and the nuances of how to interpret public opinion itself for a specific policy.
The first two chapters, on party competition and interest groups, make use of secondary data generated by the government, other scholars, and various relevant organizations. The chapters employ data on the behaviors and characteristics of members of Congress, election results, campaign finance data, and population and demographic information. Using appropriate econometric models, I find in chapter 1 that significant competition between the two major parties does serve to increase responsiveness to the public at the level of the individual legislator, with effects at the aggregate level being somewhat weaker. In recent years, it is difficult to estimate these effects because of the generally high levels of party competition and low variance across district.
Using similar data and methods, the exploratory analysis in chapter 2 suggests a relationship between unorganized groups of voters and the positions their elected officials take, independent of party, district average public opinion, and organized interest group contributions. The results also suggest that context matters a great deal in determining which groups will be influential.
Chapter 3 examines the nature of public opinion itself, using the Affordable Care Act as a case study. I conducted a survey experiment to assess how the distribution of opinions on the Affordable Care Act might change in response to priming different design features of the law. My findings indicate that opinion on the ACA is malleable and depends on what pieces of the law people think about at the time of response. In the real world, this implies that which parts of the ACA are highlighted and how it is discussed publicly will affect its future. Policy pork, as defined in the chapter, can build up support, but wedge provisions in the law can serve to entrench the opposition further. These implications can also be applied to other complex, highly visible reform bills.
A final concluding chapter attempts to apply these findings, as well as other political science research, to the case of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Based on my assessment of the political context of this act, which was hailed as a permanent resolution to a longstanding debate over Medicare provider payments, I argue that the debate is not actually over, and that group interests, the design of the law, and broader contextual factors will ensure the debate continues.