Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-s9k8s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-06T19:37:15.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Interest Group—Staff Connection in Congress: Access and Influence in Personal, Committee, and Leadership Offices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Jessica C. Gerrity ,
Nancy S. Hardt  and
Kathryn C. Lavelle
Jessica C. Gerrity
Affiliation:
2007–2008 Congressional Fellow
Nancy S. Hardt
Affiliation:
2007–2008 Congressional Fellow
Kathryn C. Lavelle
Affiliation:
2007–2008 Congressional Fellow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One manual for lobbyists in Congress warns those new to the trade that “winning the confidence of staff—and maintaining it thereafter—is a prerequisite to an ongoing, successful political relationship with any political office (Wolpe 1990).” The author then details the organization and loyalties among personal and committee staffs. One thing staffers have in common is that each specializes in an issue area and thus develops expertise over the issue, the players and politics of the committee, the legislative process, the interest groups, and the constituencies involved with the legislation (Wolpe 1990). Despite the wide-ranging literature on interest group activity in Congress, few distinctions are made between the efforts of lobbyists to influence staff, or ways in which the staff-interest group relationship varies in different types of offices.

Type
Association News
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , October 2008 , pp. 913 - 917
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bauer, Raymond A., Pool, Ithiel de Sola, and Dexter, Lewis A.. 1963. American Business and Public Policy; The Politics of Foreign Trade. New York: Atherton Press.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank R., and Leech, Beth L.. 1998. Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups inPolitics and Political Science. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bentley, Arthur F. 1908. The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressures. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Birnbaum, Jeffrey H. 1992. The Lobbyists: How Influence Peddlers Get Their Way in Washington. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Heclo, Hugh. 1977. A Government of Strangers. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Kofmehl, Kenneth. 1962. Professional Staffs of Congress. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.Google Scholar
Lowi, Theodore. 1979. The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States. 2nded. New York: N.N. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Loomis, Burdett A. 2002. “Interests, Lobbying, and the U.S. Congress: Past as Prologue”. In Interest Group Politics, ed. Cigler, A. J. and Loomis, B. A.. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Malbin, Michael J. 1979. Unelected Representatives: Congressional Staff and the Future of Representative Government. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sinclair, Barbara. 1999. “Transformational Leader or Faithful Agent? Principal-Agent Theory and House Majority Party Leadership.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 24 (3): 421–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabatier, Paul A., and Jenkins-Smith, Hank C.. 1999. “The Advocacy Coalition Framework: An Assessment.” In Theories of the Policy Process, ed. Sabatier, P. A.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Wolpe, Bruce C. 1990. Lobbying Congress: How the System Works. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Wright, John R. 2003. Interest Groups and Congress: Lobbying, Contributions, and Influence. New York: Longman.Google Scholar