Abstract
Using the entries in the US-based Encyclopedia of Associations and the UK Directory of British Associations,1 this chapter reviews the growth and development of the associational universe in two political systems. The cases have been coded according to two separate national typologies, but to aid comparison the UK data have been recoded to use the US system, which in turn uses categories from those in the Policy Agendas Project (www.policyagendas.org; www.policyagendas.org.uk). The chapter attempts to get a handle on the broad scale of the national associational populations in the UK and the US. The associational data are seen as a proxy for the respective national interest group systems. Beyond that, the projects have tried to map how the overall numbers are responding sector by sector to conflicting pressures of expansion and reduction. Overall the exercises sought to test the widespread assumptions that the interest group systems in each country were dense and complex – and becoming increasingly so on both counts. However, the chapter identifies two slightly different conventional wisdoms. One is about group-level explosion and the second is about variation by subcategory of the whole.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Baumgartner, F. and B. Leech (1998) Basic Interests (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Berry, J. (1999a) The New Liberalism (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press).
Berry, J. (1999b) ‘The Rise of Citizen Groups’, in T. Skocpol and M. Fiorina (eds.) Civic Engagement and American Democracy (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press).
Bevan, S. (2011) ‘The Life Cycle of Voluntary Associations in the United States, 1972–2001’ (doctoral dissertation).
Cigler, A. (1994) ‘Research Gaps in the Study of Interest Representation’, in M. Schwartz and J. Green (eds.) Representing Interests and Interest Group Representation (Lanham, MD: University Press of America).
Close, A., G. Bologna, and C. W. McCormick (1988) Washington Representatives (Washington, DC: Columbia).
Colgate, C. (1982) National Trade and Professional Associations of the United States (Washington, DC: Columbia).
Crawford, K. (1939) The Pressure Boys (New York: J. Messner).
Croly, H. (1915) Progressive Democracy (New York: Macmillan).
Gray, V. and D. Lowery (1996) The Population Ecology of Interest Representation: Lobbying Communities in the American States (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).
Herring, E. P. (1929) Group Representation before Congress (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Johnson, E. and J. D. McCarthy (2005) ‘The Sequencing of Transnational and National Social Movement Mobilization: The Organizational Mobilization of the Global and U.S. Environmental Movements’, in D. Della Porta and S. Tarrow (eds.) Transnational Protest and Global Activism (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield).
Jordan, G. and W. Maloney (2007) Democracy and Interest Groups (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan).
King, J. C. and J. L. Walker (1991) ‘An Ecology of Interest Groups in America’, in J. L. Walker (ed.) Mobilizing Interest Groups in America (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).
Nownes, A. and G. Neeley (1996) ‘Toward an Explanation for Public Interest Group Formation and Proliferation: “Seed Money,” Disturbances, Entrepreneurship, and Patronage’, Policy Studies Journal, 24, 74–92.
Petracca, M. (1992) ‘The Rediscovery of Interest Group Politics’, in M. Petracca (ed.) The Politics of Interests (Boulder, CO: Westview).
Pollock, J. K. (1927) ‘The Regulation of Lobbying’, American Political Science Review, 21(2), 335–41.
Salisbury, R. (1992) Interests and Institutions (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press).
Salisbury, R. (1994) ‘Interest Structures and Policy Domains’, in M. Schwartz and J. Green (eds.) Representing Interests and Interest Group Representation (Lanham, MD: University Press of America).
Schlozman, K. and J. Tierney (1986) Organized Interests and American Democracy (New York: Harper & Row).
Truman, D. (1951) The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion (New York: Alfred A. Knopf).
Walker, J. L. (1983) ‘The Origins and Maintenance of Interest Groups in America’, American Political Science Review, 77, 390–406.
Yoffie, D. B. (1985). ‘Interest Groups vs. Individual Action: An Analysis of Corporate Political Strategies’, Harvard Business School working paper no. 9-785-018.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2012 Grant Jordan, Frank R. Baumgartnerm John D. McCarthy, Shaun Bevan, and Jamie Greenan
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jordan, G., Baumgartner, F.R., McCarthy, J.D., Bevan, S., Greenan, J. (2012). Tracking Interest Group Populations in the US and the UK. In: Halpin, D., Jordan, G. (eds) The Scale of Interest Organization in Democratic Politics. Interest Groups, Advocacy and Democracy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230359239_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230359239_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-32961-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-35923-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)