Lobbying and Policy Change
Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why

Winner of the Leon D. Epstein Outsanding Book Award, APSA Section on Political Organizations and Parties, 2010

Frank R. Baumgartner
Jeffrey M. Berry
Marie Hojnacki
David C. Kimball
Beth L. Leech

University of Chicago Press, 2009

360 pages, 10 line drawings, 40 tables 6 x 9 © 2009
Cloth $66.00 ISBN: 9780226039442 Published June 2009
Paper $24.00 ISBN: 9780226039459 Published June 2009

Link to our web site which provides all the primary materials including original source documents for each of the 98 issues in our sample.

Link to our documentation page which provides all the publicly available datasets needed to recreate the analysis in our book or conduct further studies.

Read a Synopsis and the Table of Contents

Purchase the book from the University of Chicago Press or Amazon.com

Academic Reviews:

• Perspectives on Politics 9 (1): 178-80 (2011), by McGee Young
• Government Information Quarterly 28, 2 (2011): 291–292, by Julia Proctor
• Journal of Politics 72 (4): 1252-67 (2010), by Thomas T. Holyoke
• Political Science Quarterly 125 (1), 2010, by Susan Webb Yackee
• Journal of Legislative Studies 16, 2 (2010): 270–271, by Christine DeGregorio
• Public Administration 88 (3): 895-898, 2010, by Caelesta Braun-Poppelaars
• Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 35 (3): 433-438 (2010), by David Randall
• Regulation, Fall 2010, pp. 48-49, by John Samples
• APSA Legislative Studies Section Newsletter Jan 2010, by Caitlyn O'Grady
• Choice, March 2010, by S. L. Harrison
• Saurugger, Sabine. 2010. Influence et démocratie: Nouvelles études sur les groupes d’intérêt. Revue Française de Science Politique 60, 6: 1182–1185  (review in French)
• Fraussen, Bert. 2012. Interest Group Politics: Change and Continuity. Journal of European Integration, 34, 5: 523-529.
• Gouvernement et Action Publique 2: 189-192 (Avril-Juin 2012), by Hélène Michel (review in French)

Related journal publications:

• Hojnacki, Marie, Kathleen M. Marchetti, Frank R. Baumgartner, Jeffrey M. Berry, David C. Kimball, and Beth L. Leech. 2015. Assessing Business Advantage in Washington Lobbying. Interest Groups and Advocacy, forthcoming.
  • See a discussion of our article on TheHill.com here.
  • See a blog post on the Washington Post Monkey Cage entitled Business doesn’t always get its way by Marie Hojnacki, Jeffrey Berry, Beth Leech and Kathleen Marchetti June 10, 2015
• Mahoney, Christine and Frank R. Baumgartner. 2015. Partners in Advocacy: Lobbyists and Government Officials in the Policy Process. Journal of Politics 77, 1: 202–15.
• Baumgartner, Frank R., Jeffrey M. Berry, Marie Hojnacki, David C. Kimball, and Beth L. Leech. 2014. Money, Priorities, and Stalemate: How Lobbying Affects Public Policy. Election Law Journal 13, 1: 194–209.
• Kimball, David C., Frank R. Baumgartner, Jeffrey M. Berry, Marie Hojnacki, Beth L. Leech, and Bryce Summary. 2012. Who Cares About the Lobbying Agenda?  Interest Groups and Advocacy 1, 1: 1–21.
• Hojnacki, Marie, David C. Kimball, Frank R. Baumgartner, Jeffrey M. Berry, and Beth L. Leech. 2012. Studying Organizational Advocacy and Influence: Reexamining Interest Group Research. Annual Review of Political Science 15: 9.1-9.21.

Blog and media discussions:

• Apple Goes Without a Lobby Into European Fray, by Natalia Drozdiak, September 25, 2016, Wall Street Journal
• People are angry, but about politics, not the economy, by Matthew Yglesias, May 17, 2016. Vox.com
• The great money-in-politics myth, by Dylan Matthews, February 9, 2016, Vox.com
• The lobbying economy is twice as big as we think, by Andrew Prokop, October 3, 2014. Vox.com. (Interview with Tim LaPira, who was a lead research assistant on our book and now associate professor of political science at James Madison University. They discuss revolving door lobbyists, the scope of the lobbying universe, and our book.)
• Fiascos and Matters of Degree, by Bob Bauer, March 27, 2014, More Soft Money Hard Law blog. (Discussion of our 2014 article in Election Law Journal based on the book.)
• The real reason Silicon Valley can't win in Washington, by Matthew Yglesias, May 27, 2014, Vox.com.
• Kill Bill, by Thomas B. Edsall, May 22, 2013, New York Times Opinionator Blog.
• Think Again: The Power of Un-Reality, by Eric Alterman, December 20, 2012, Center for American Progress.
• The Endless Lobbying Arms Race, by Ryan Cooper, September 26, 2012. Washington Monthly.
• Is the government making Washington rich? (In charts, of course), by Dylan Matthews, September 25, 2012. Ezra Klein's Wonkbook, WashingtonPost.com.
• Democracy in America, The Economist.com, , September 26, 2012.
  
• 5 Lessons from the SOPA/PIPA Fight, by Matthew Yglesias, Slate / Moneybox, January 20, 2012.
• Think Again: When Money Talks, Who Listens (Besides Politicians)?, by Eric Alterman, Nov 8, 2010. Center for American Progress.
• K Street and the Status Quo, feature story on our book, by Melinda Burns, Miller-McCune magazine, Sept-Oct 2010. Miller-McCune magazine is now hosted by Pacific Standard.
• A story in the New York Times Week in Review "Idea of the Day" section about our book, and the article above, from August 20, 2010.
• Matthew Yglesias on his blog, from August 20, 2010.
• Hightlighted site of the week on lobby comply blog by Joe May, August 20, 2010.
• "Lobbying Yields Nothing?" by Lee Drutman, August 20, 2010.
• Mamas, Don’t Let Your Daughters Grow Up To Be Lobbyists, by Jessica Dweck, August 20, 2010.
• Do Lobbyists Have Influence?, Public Affairs Perspective.
• The Real Impact of Interest Groups, by Steven Greene, September 1, 2010.
• Punctuated Equilibrium, by Reihan Salam, National Review Online, September 8, 2010.
• Poli Sci 101, by Ezra Klein, Washington Post, September 12, 2010.
• Legislation by Donation? by Mark Derewicz, Endeavors, Winter 2011, pp. 36-40.
• A debate entitled Why do Lobbyists Have the Veto? surrounding our book at the National Press Club in Washington DC on September 16, 2010. (See the video here, lasting approximately 90 minutes.) (Related coverage below)
  • The Complexity of Lobbying, September 17, 2010

Listen to a radio interview with Baumgartner about lobbying in Washington with Laval University radio station CHYZ 94.3 FM, recorded 16 April 2010. The interview lasts approximately 30 minutes and covers lobbying in Washington, interest groups, and at the end a few comments on the death penalty. NOTE: THE INTERVIEW IS CONDUCTED IN FRENCH.

updated January 19, 2021