Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science
Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science
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基本兴趣：群体在政治和政治学中的重要性
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发表时间：
1998
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通讯作者：
Frank R. Baumgartner
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作者：
Frank R. Baumgartner
一代人之前，学者们将利益集团视为美国政治体系中最重要的元素。如今，与国会、总统和司法机构等机构相比，政治学家更有可能将群体视为边缘影响力。弗兰克·鲍姆加特纳和贝丝·里奇表明，学者们从一个极端转向另一个极端不是因为政治制度的变化，而是因为政治学的变化。他们评论了数百本有关 20 世纪 40 年代至今的利益集团的书籍和文章；研究困扰该领域的方法论和概念问题；并提出研究策略，使兴趣小组研究回归到更相关的位置。作者首先解释了四十年前团体政治方法是如何成为主流的，以回应之前的宪法法律方法。它们展示了它是如何在 20 世纪 70 年代衰落的，因为学者们忽视了团体对政府的影响，转而关注更可量化但范围更窄的主题，例如集体行动困境和招聘动态。因此，尽管进行了大量的研究活动，我们仍然对群体如何影响日常治理知之甚少。鲍姆加特纳和利奇认为，学者们需要制定一套更加连贯的研究问题，专注于大规模研究，并更多地关注群体行为的背景。他们的书将为这个长期处于学术荒野中的领域提供新的动力和方向。
A generation ago, scholars saw interest groups as the single most important element in the American political system. Today, political scientists are more likely to see groups as a marginal influence compared to institutions such as Congress, the presidency, and the judiciary. Frank Baumgartner and Beth Leech show that scholars have veered from one extreme to another not because of changes in the political system, but because of changes in political science. They review hundreds of books and articles about interest groups from the 1940s to today; examine the methodological and conceptual problems that have beset the field; and suggest research strategies to return interest-group studies to a position of greater relevance. The authors begin by explaining how the group approach to politics became dominant forty years ago in reaction to the constitutional-legal approach that preceded it. They show how it fell into decline in the 1970s as scholars ignored the impact of groups on government to focus on more quantifiable but narrower subjects, such as collective-action dilemmas and the dynamics of recruitment. As a result, despite intense research activity, we still know very little about how groups influence day-to-day governing. Baumgartner and Leech argue that scholars need to develop a more coherent set of research questions, focus on large-scale studies, and pay more attention to the context of group behavior. Their book will give new impetus and direction to a field that has been in the academic wilderness too long.