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Policy Feedback and the Polarization of Interest Groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2021

Leslie K. Finger  and
Sarah Reckhow Open the ORCID record for Sarah Reckhow [Opens in a new window]
Leslie K. Finger
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
Sarah Reckhow*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
*
Corresponding author: Sarah Reckhow, email: [email protected]
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Abstract

We use the case of education interest groups to examine how and when policy changes lead interest groups to polarize in their support for political parties. Using over 145,000 campaign contributions from all 50 states from 2000 to 2017, we test whether the passage of private school choice, charter laws, and labor retrenchment policies led to the polarization of education interest groups over time. In 2000, teachers unions were the dominant group and mostly aligned with Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans lacked support from any education groups. This pattern was consistent across states. Over time, coalitions in some states became polarized, meaning unions grew even more aligned with Democrats and reform groups with Republicans, while other states did not experience such polarization. We show that private school choice programs, but not labor retrenchment or charter laws, contributed to this changing partisan alignment. Our findings demonstrate that policy feedback can shape both the electoral mobilization and party alignments of interest groups.

Keywords

interest groupscampaign contributionsthe politics of educationpolicy feedbackpolitical partiespolarization
Type
Original Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 70 - 95
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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https://doi.org/10.15139/S3/ZAMRST
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