EVALUATING THE BREADTH OF POLICY ENGAGEMENT BY ORGANIZED INTERESTS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Halpin, Darren R.; Thomas, H. F., III
• 署名单位: Aarhus University; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3298
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.02005.x
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 582-599
• 关键词: interest representation; diversity; agenda; BANDWAGONS; dominance; patterns; niches

摘要

This article probes the variation in the breadth of policy engagement among organized interests. The literature, heavily shaped by large-n US studies of Washington and its lobbying system, suggests many reasons for organized interests to focus policy engagement relatively narrowly. This claim of policy specialization has been long repeated in the British public policy literature. The aim of this article is to empirically test the extent to which expectations of narrowed engagement hold in a UK context. This article uses a new Scottish dataset that tracks actual engagement by any organized interest on executive policy consultations over a 25-year period. It tracks over 90,000 mobilization events' by over 18,000 organizations in 1,690 distinct consultation issues across the entire Scottish policy system. In analysing these data, we concern ourselves with establishing: (1) the extent of generalized engagement; (2) the type of organized interests that are more or less general in their engagement; and (3) the extent to which a specialized style of policy engagement is on the increase over time. In the process, we develop measures that are appropriate for assessing breadth of engagement using issue-based policy data.