Basic Interests
Basic Interests
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基本兴趣
DOI：
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发表时间：
1998
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Beth L. Leech
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文献类型：
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作者：
Frank R. Baumgartner;Beth L. Leech
一代人以前，学者们认为利益集团是美国政治体系中最重要的因素。今天，政治学家更有可能将团体视为与国会，总统和司法机构相比的边缘影响力。弗兰克·鲍姆加特纳（Frank Baumgartner）和贝丝·利奇（Beth Leech）指出，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，而是因为政治科学的变化。他们回顾了从20世纪40年代到今天的数百本关于利益集团的书籍和文章;研究了困扰该领域的方法和概念问题;并提出了研究策略，以使利益集团研究回归到更重要的位置。两位作者开始解释了40年前，群体政治学是如何成为主流的，以回应此前的宪法-法律政治学，并展示了它是如何在20世纪70年代衰落的，因为学者们忽视了群体对政府的影响，而把注意力集中在更可量化但范围更窄的主题上，比如集体行动困境和招募的动态。因此，尽管有大量的研究活动，我们仍然对群体如何影响日常治理知之甚少。Baumgartner和Leech认为，学者们需要开发一套更连贯的研究问题，专注于大规模的研究，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.