Old and new data sources and methods for interest group research
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Old and new data sources and methods for interest group research Abigail Vegter1 · Jami K. Taylor2 · Donald P. Haider‑Markel1 Published online: 28 August 2020 © Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract This article reviews the literature featuring quantitative interest group research at the national and subnational level in the United States. We direct scholars to existing resources and techniques. Additionally, we make recommendations on methods and discuss the limitations of prevailing measures. The appropriate measure is driven by the research question and data availability. However, since money is a central resource in politics, every attempt should be made to include organization or sector financial resources when investigating the relative strength of groups in policymaking. Keywords Interest groups · Data sources · Methodology
Introduction Interest group scholars have long been frustrated when attempting to quantify aspects of the interest group system given the limited access to data and the measurement concerns around interest group influence generally. Throughout the years, many different approaches have been used to assess the influence of interest groups, their activities, or their networks within a policy subsystem. These efforts have improved over time and have led to a body of scholarship featuring diverse methodologies and data sources. To aid future research on interest groups, in this article we review established and newly available data sources and methods for investigating the activities of groups, the size and influence of groups, and the size and nature of the interest group system within policy subsystems in the USA. We review research at the national and subnational levels, surveying the field and noting the diverse methods used in the literature and the breadth of data available for researchers. We
* Abigail Vegter [email protected] 1
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
2
University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA
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conclude with a discussion about the limitations of existing measurement tools and sources and offer suggestions to improve practice.
Interest group research: data and methods Interest group research has struggled with the measurement of key concepts, such as group strength, influence, and even defining and identifying the groups within a subsystem. The shared understanding of the concepts themselves has often been lacking, which has led to disagreements over what is being measured. For example, the concept of interest group strength typically refers to the potential power of an interest group to affect policy outcomes, as derived from its available resources. These resources are financial, such as assets or budget, or human, such as potential membership population, actual membership size, or quality of leadership. The ability to measure these resources is complicated by the fact that some groups are informal and may not have budgets, membership rolls, or other institutionalize
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