Using the Comparative Agendas Project to examine interest group behavior
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Using the Comparative Agendas Project to examine interest group behavior E. J. Fagan1 · Brooke Shannon2
© Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract The rapid expansion of the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) has drastically increased data availability on the policy agendas of government outputs. These data are coded using a system to allow for valid comparisons in policy agendas across issues, time, and systems. However, less data are available for interest groups outputs, and that data have mostly been limited to the USA. In this paper, we propose methods for measuring the policy agendas of interest groups using the CAP system. Scholars can estimate the policy content of interest group activities by linking them to existing CAP datasets. These data can be used to compare the distribution of policy attention of interest groups and the institutions they attempt to influence. Because the CAP datasets are highly detailed and widely available, researchers can examine interest group activities at low costs. Furthermore, we discuss higher-cost methods of coding interest group policy outputs that may be of interest to scholars. Keywords Interest groups · Agenda setting · Comparative Agendas Project
Introduction Interest group scholars are increasingly interested in the policy activities of their subjects. It has been well argued that interest groups influence the policy process, particularly in the agenda-setting phase (Dahl 1961; Gais et al. 1984; Schattschneider 1960). As neighboring institutions to government, interest groups both influence and are influenced by the formal policy agenda. However, the study of the relationship between the policy agendas of interest groups and governments has been
* E. J. Fagan [email protected] Brooke Shannon [email protected] 1
Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA
2
Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA
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E. J. Fagan, B. Shannon
limited by data availability. What research that has been conducted has relied on data from the Encyclopedia of Associations, which is limited in both time frame and granularity. Beginning with Schattschneider (1960), interest groups have played an essential role in theories of agenda setting. Long before government attention lurches toward an issue, interest groups work to highlight or frame policy problems, mobilize public support or opposition, push issues to different venues, and subsidize legislative activity through information provision (Baumgartner et al. 2008, 2014; Baumgartner and Leech 1998; Hall and Deardorff 2006). After the government changes policy, interest groups grow and feed back into the new policy areas, participate in subsystems, and inform policymaking decisions (Jones et al. 2019; Leech et al. 2005). However, despite their prominence in theories of agenda setting, interest groups are far less studied than later stages of the policy process such as lawmaking. This gap is in part caused by data availability. The Comparative Agendas
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