Lobbying influence: Meaning, measurement and missing

Executive Summary All too often, research on the influence of interest organizations in democratic politics produces null findings. What are we to make of these results? In part, the answer may lie in our conception of influence – what it is and what might constitute evidence for it. But even when m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Interest groups & advocacy 2013-03, Vol.2 (1), p.1-26
Main Author: Lowery, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Democratic theory
Epistemology
Hypothesis
Interest groups
Lobbying
Original Article
Political Communication
Political Science
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Politics
Public opinion
Public Policy
Research methods
Sociology
Studies
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Summary:Executive Summary All too often, research on the influence of interest organizations in democratic politics produces null findings. What are we to make of these results? In part, the answer may lie in our conception of influence – what it is and what might constitute evidence for it. But even when more complete conceptions of influence are considered in better research designs, null results will still occur. They merit explanation. To address these issues, I will first try to provide a broader conception of influence and its many possible meanings by exploring the older theoretical literature on urban power from the 1950s and 1960s, considering along the way what the different interpretations might tell us about lobbying. And second, I will develop a catalog of null hypotheses and discuss how these bear on interpreting the many null findings in influence research. Finally, I discuss the implications of this analysis for the future of influence research.
ISSN:2047-7414
2047-7422
DOI:10.1057/iga.2012.20