Basic
Interests:
The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science
Frank R. Baumgartner and
Beth L. Leech
Princeton University Press, 1998.
A generation ago, scholars saw interest groups as the single most important
element in the American political system. Today, political scientists are more
likely to see groups as a marginal influence compared to institutions such as
Congress, the presidency, and the judiciary. Frank Baumgartner and Beth Leech
show that scholars have veered from one extreme to another not because of
changes in the political system, but because of changes in political science.
They review hundreds of books and articles about interest groups from the 1940s
to today; examine the methodological and conceptual problems that have beset
the field; and suggest research strategies to return interest-group studies to
a position of greater relevance.
The authors begin by explaining how the group approach to politics became
dominant forty years ago in reaction to the constitutional-legal approach that
preceded it. They show how it fell into decline in the 1970s as scholars
ignored the impact of groups on government to focus on more quantifiable but
narrower subjects, such as collective-action dilemmas and the dynamics of
recruitment. As a result, despite intense research activity, we still know very
little about how groups influence day-to-day governing. Baumgartner and Leech
argue that scholars need to develop a more coherent set of research questions,
focus on large-scale studies, and pay more attention to the context of group
behavior. Their book will give new impetus and direction to a field that has
been in the academic wilderness too long.