Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T07:53:27.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Political Economy of Group Membership

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1985

John Mark Hansen
John Mark Hansen*
Affiliation:
Yale University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Despite its normative importance, the question of why people join interest groups remains open. It has certainly provoked a wealth of theoretical attention. Regrettably, however, it has inspired only a handful of empirical tests. The introduction of this article places the empirical debate into its normative context. The first section develops a rational model of individual evaluations of group membership, focusing upon the effect of changing personal circumstances—preferences, needs, resources, insecurity, and information—on the calculus. In particular, the theory predicts responsiveness to political or collective benefits in threatening times. Analyses of aggregate changes over time in membership in the Farm Bureau, the League of Women Voters, and the Home Builders, reported in the second section, bear the model out. Finally, the conclusion takes on the complementary question of group supply, sketching a theory of group mobilization that emphasizes subsidization.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 79 , Issue 1 , March 1985 , pp. 79 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1985

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

Ashenfelter, O. & Pencavel, J. American trade union growth: 1900-1960, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1969, 83, 434–448.10.2307/1880530CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, G. The county agent. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939.Google Scholar
Berger, S. Dollar Harvest. Lexington, Mass: D.C. Heath, 1971.Google Scholar
Berry, J. Lobbying for the people. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Block, W. The separation of the Farm Bureau and the Extension Service. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Campbell, C. The Farm Bureau and the New Deal. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Cantril, A. & Cantril, S. D. The report of the findings of the League self-study. Washington, D.C: League of Women Voters, 1974.Google Scholar
Hardin, R. Collective action. Baltimore: Resources for the Future, 1982.Google Scholar
Headey, B. Housing policy in the developed economy. London: Croom Helm, 1978.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A. Exit, voice, and loyalty. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. Prospect theory: An analysis of decisions under risk, Econometrica, 1979, 47, 263–291.10.2307/1914185CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kile, O. The Farm Bureau through three decades. Baltimore: Waverly, 1948.Google Scholar
Knoke, D. & Wright-Isak, C. Indivdual motives and organizational incentive systems. Research in the sociology of organizations, 1982, 1, 209–254.Google Scholar
Lilley, W. Washington pressures/home builders' lobbying skills result in success, “good guy” image. National Journal, February 27, 1971, 431–445.Google Scholar
Lindblom, C. Politics and markets. New York: Basic Books, 1977.Google Scholar
Mancke, R. B. American trade union growth, 1900-1960: A comment. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1911, 85, 187–193.10.2307/1881849CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnell, G. Private power and American democracy. New York: Knopf, 1966.Google Scholar
Miller, A., Gurin, P., Gurin, G., & Malanchuk, O. Group consciousness and political participation. American Journal of Political Science, 1981, 25, 495–511.Google Scholar
Mitchell, R. National environmental lobbies and the apparent illogic of collective action. In Russell, C. (Ed.) Collective decision making. Baltimore: Resources for the Future, 1979, 87–136.Google Scholar
Moe, T. A calculus of group membership. American Journal of Political Science, 1980, 24, 593–632.10.2307/2110950CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, M. The logic of collective action. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965/1971.Google Scholar
Russell, R. Membership in the American Farm Bureau Federation, 1926-1935, Rural Sociology, 1937, 2, 29–35.Google Scholar
Salisbury, R. An exchange theory of interest groups. Midwest Journal of Political Science, 1969, 13, 1–32.10.2307/2110212CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Small Business Administration. The state of small business. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1983.Google Scholar
Taylor, S. The availability bias in social perception and interaction. In Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (Eds.), Judgments under uncertainty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, 190–200.10.1017/CBO9780511809477.014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tontz, R. Membership in the general farmers' organizations, United States, 1874-1960, Agricultural History, 1964, 38, 143–157.Google Scholar
Truman, D. The governmental process (2d ed.). New York: Knopf, 1971.Google Scholar
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 1981, 211, 453–458.10.1126/science.7455683CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, J. The origins and maintenance of interest groups in America. American Political Science Review, 1983, 77, 390–406.10.2307/1958924CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weicher, J. Housing: Federal policies and programs. Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1980.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. Q. Political organizations. New York: Basic Books, 1973.Google Scholar
Zeigler, L. H., & Jennings, M. K. Governing American schools. North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury, 1974.Google Scholar