1. See, for example, Ornstein, Norman and Elder, Shirley, Interest Groups, Lobbying and Policymaking (Washington, D.C., 1978).Google Scholar

2. See Carnoy, Martin, The State and Political Theory (Princeton, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Jessop, Bob, The Capitalist State (New York, 1982).Google Scholar

3. Lindbloom, Charles, Politics and Markets (New York, 1977).Google Scholar

4. Vogel, David, Fluctuating Fortunes (New York, 1989), 9.Google Scholar

5. Vogel, David, “A Study of the Clean Air Act Legislation 1967–1981,” in Bock, Betty et al., eds., The Impact of the Modern Corporation (New York, 1984).Google Scholar

6. A number of empirical studies by free-market economists following the Chicago school of George Stigler and Sam Peltzman argue that “regulation will tend to be more heavily weighted toward ‘producer protection’ in depressions and toward ‘consumer protection’ in expansions.” Peltzman, Sam, “Toward a More General Theory of Regulation,” Journal of Law and Economics 19 (1976):CrossRefGoogle Scholar. By correlating the number of actions taken by regulatory agencies seen as anticonsumer with changes in the growth in the GNP, they conclude that this position is empirically verified. (See, for example, Shughart, William II and Tollison, Robert, “The Cyclical Character of Regulatory Activity,” Public Choice 45 (1985): 303–11).Google Scholar Besides the problem of aggregating decisions of varying magnitudes, this approach is of little help in explaining the development of new regulatory concerns or changes in political strategies.

7. Offe, Claus, Disorganized Capitalism (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), 166.Google Scholar

8. Offe, Claus, Contradictions of the Welfare State (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), 160.Google Scholar

9. Greenwald, Carol, Group Power (New York, 1976), 70.Google Scholar

10. See Nader, Ralph, Unsafe at Any Speed (New York, 1972)Google Scholar, chap. 7; Clair, David St., The Motorization of American Cities (New York, 1986), chap. 6.Google Scholar

11. Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed, 140. In 1980, for instance, 51,000 people died in car accidents and approximately four million individuals suffered injuries, 250,000 of them seriously. Car accidents are the largest killer of Americans under the age of thirty-four and the largest cause of paraplegia and quadriplegia. According to a 1979 Office of Technology Assessment report, approximately two million Americans have died and nearly 100 million have been injured in car accidents, more than triple the combat losses suffered by the United States in all wars.

12. Bollier, David and Claybrook, Joan, Freedom from Harm (Washington, D.C., 1986), 90.Google Scholar

13. Kifner, John, “Earth Day Group Zeros in on Autos,” New York Times, 20 July 1970, 52.Google Scholar

14. See Bollier and Claybrook, Freedom from Harm, for estimates on the benefits of regulation.

15. Hansen, Kirk, “The Effect of Fuel Economy Standards on Corporate Strategy in the Auto Industry,” in Ginsberg, Douglas and Abernathy, Ralph, eds., Government, Technology, and the Future of the Automobile (New York, 1980), 154.Google Scholar

16. Asbell, David, “The Outlawing of Next Year's Cars,” New York Times Sunday Magazine, 21 November 1976, 128Google Scholar; Emshiwiller, John and Karr, Albert, “Breaking the Rules: Auto Men Use Slump in Seeking Slowdown on Safety, Pollution,” Wall Street Journal, 9 January 1975, 1.Google Scholar

17. Vogel, “A Study of the Clean Air Legislation,” 344.

18. Edsall, Thomas, The New Politics of Inequality (New York, 1984).Google Scholar

19. Ferguson, Thomas and Rogers, Joel, Right Turn (New York, 1986).Google Scholar

20. Ibid., 88.

21. American Automobile and Truck Industry-Congressional Support, Senate Concurrent Resolution 101, 24 June 1980, 94 Stat. 3669.

22. Edward Lanham et al., “Carter Offers His Plan to Rescue Detroit,” Automotive News, 14 July 1980, 1.

23. Department of Transportation, The Auto Industry 1980.

24. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, “President Reagan's Program for the US Auto Industry,” 6 April 1981.

25. Wines, Michael, “Regulatory Plan to Relieve Auto Industry Regulatory Burden Gets Mixed Grades,” National Journal, 23 July 1983, 1535.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., 1535.

27. Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association v. State Farm, 463 US 29.

28. 49 FR 28,962 (1984). This action guaranteed more litigation, as well as an intensive industry lobbying effort directed at the states. Its effort is an example of the unique lobbying techniques available to large corporations. The industry created a nonprofit group, Traffic Safety Now, Inc., through its trade association to lobby states to enact mandatory seat-belt laws. Reportedly the industry planned to spend $15 million annually on lobbying. Dwarfing the resources available to safety advocates, the industry combined fairly standard one-on-one lobbying techniques by some of the industry's best-known personalities, including Lee Iacocca, with a far more unusual tactic. Opponents charged that GM told states they would not be considered as possible sites for its new Saturn plant unless they passed a mandatory usage law.

29. 52 FR 10,096 (1987).

30. 50 FR 40,528 (1985).

31. 50 FR 40,538–9 (1985).

32. Helen Kahn, “More Makers Seek CAFE Relief,” Automotive News, 11 March 1985, 11.

33. U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Automobile Fuel Economy Standards. Hearings before the subcommittee on Energy Regulation and Conservation, 99th Cong., 1st sess., 14 May 1985, 264.

34. Ibid., 74.

35. In June 1989 Ford did just this.

36. U.S. International Trade Commission, Certain Motor Vehicles and Certain Chassis and Bodies Therefor, Report to the President on Investigation TA 201–44, US ITC Publication 1110, 3 December 1980.

37. Crandall, Robert, “Import Quotas and the Automobile Industry,” The Brookings Review (Summer 1984): 12.Google Scholar

38. HR. 1234, 98th Congress.

39. U.S. Federal Trade Commission “General Motors Corporation, et al.,” FTC Decisions vol. 103, 11 April 1984.