Who Gets What Now? Interest Groups under Obama

Abstract

President Obama, like countless politicians before him, has pledged to cleanse Washington of the unseemly influence of interest groups on the policymaking process. His plan is to expand the scope of group participation and eliminate quid pro quo exchanges. Yet early signals indicate that he has brought the same previously prominent interest groups (both conservatives and liberals) into policy discussions over the stimulus bill, children's health insurance, health care reform, and entitlement control. Early policy changes also appear to offer substantial benefits to interest groups and constituencies associated with the Democratic Party.

I argue that these patterns are typical and should be expected to continue. The involvement of various interest groups and constituencies in Washington policymaking is governed by their relative organizational mobilization, independent of ideology. Yet the extent to which party leaders heed their advice follows largely from their ties to partisan coalitions and their views. Despite campaign claims that interest group influence must be hindered before policy proposals can move forward, policy change comes much more easily to Washington than changes in the role of interest groups in the policymaking process.

Recommended Citation

Grossmann, Matt (2009) "Who Gets What Now? Interest Groups under Obama," The Forum: Vol. 7 : Iss. 1, Article 5.
DOI: 10.2202/1540-8884.1298
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/forum/vol7/iss1/art5