Political opportunity and the rise and decline of interest group sectors

Abstract

Interest group activity is always affected by the political environment in which groups operate. As a result, effective study of public interest groups must situate them in a larger political context. We propose a means of doing so by building on theoretical and empirical studies of both social movements and interest groups. We argue that groups can best be understood by changing the unit of analysis from an individual group to the set of groups pursuing common agendas, or an "interest group sector." Drawing from both empirical and theoretical literature, we establish both the necessity and the theoretical parameters for a sectoral analysis, and offer a basic framework for such an analysis. We demonstrate empirical support for a sectoral approach by looking at the periodicity of group formation in five public interest sectors. We then propose a six stage framework to describe a cyclic process of issue emergence, resource mobilization, organization building, and their relation to the policy process. We conclude by discussing the potential policy impact of interest group mobilization and institutionalization, and its relationship to democracy.