Coalitions and Conservation: Conditional Impacts of Coalitions on Ballot Measures for Open Space

• Published in: The Review of policy research 2017-05, Vol.34 (3), p.357-377
• Main Authors: Lowry, William R., Scott Krummenacher, W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ballots; Coalitions; Conservation; Conservation organizations; Dominance; Elections; Expenditures; Hypotheses; Interest groups; Minimum wage; Open space; policy; Presidential elections; Public policy; Social scientists
• ISSN: 1541-132X; 1541-1338
• DOI: 10.1111/ropr.12232

Social scientists have long debated the impact of interest group coalitions on public policies. While views on coalition impacts range from dominance to impotence, an emerging perspective suggests that coalitions have impacts under certain conditions. In this paper, we join and expand that perspective by arguing that coalitions have a conditional impact on public policies through ballot measures. Specifically, we argue that coalitions will have greater impact on ballot measure outcomes in non‐presidential election years, when the stakes involved are high, and when the goals of the measure are diverse. We test these hypotheses with analyses of a dataset of over 2,400 ballot measures on spending for open space at the state and local level between 1988 and 2014. We find strong support for our hypotheses. The findings have implications for scholarly debates on interest groups and coalitions, for the role of ballot measures in American public policy, and for assessments of open space and conservation in American society.