Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Contagion in the Laboratories of Democracy
- 2 Incrementalism and Policy Outbreaks in the American States
- 3 Policy Agents
- 4 Innovation Hosts
- 5 Policy Vectors
- 6 Conclusion
- Appendix A List of Innovations Collected
- Appendix B Policies Collected by Historical Era
- Appendix C Innovations Collected by Policy Type and Target
- Appendix D State Receptivity to Innovation Ranked by Policy Type
- References
- Index
5 - Policy Vectors
Interest Groups and Diffusion Dynamics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 March 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Contagion in the Laboratories of Democracy
- 2 Incrementalism and Policy Outbreaks in the American States
- 3 Policy Agents
- 4 Innovation Hosts
- 5 Policy Vectors
- 6 Conclusion
- Appendix A List of Innovations Collected
- Appendix B Policies Collected by Historical Era
- Appendix C Innovations Collected by Policy Type and Target
- Appendix D State Receptivity to Innovation Ranked by Policy Type
- References
- Index
Summary
Interest groups play a central role in the diffusion of innovations in America. As advocates for policy change, interest groups interact with government decision makers and political institutions to achieve legislative goals. Activists introduce novel policies for legislative consideration and work diligently to pressure government to enact them. Groups that are well represented in mainstream politics may work closely with elected government to enact legislation, whereas marginalized outsider groups attempt to influence legislation by framing and reframing policy proposals to shape mass perceptions and support for legislation, or by agitating for policy innovation at the state or municipal government level. In this sense, interest groups and individual policy advocates are important carriers of innovation in the United States. The spread of policy innovation is often driven by the dedicated work of policy entrepreneurs and interest-group activists who appeal to local, state, and national governments to secure legislative change.
Although research in public-policy diffusion has recognized the central role that interest groups and policy entrepreneurs play as the primary carriers of innovation, studies of interest groups have most often narrowly focused on single case studies documenting the existence and influence of interest-group networks and professional associations. This descriptive orientation overlooks how variations in the organization and behavior of policy vectors shape patterns of policy diffusion. Interest groups pursue a number of distinct organizational and rhetorical strategies to achieve policy change. The ways in which interest groups organize and pressure for innovation lead to very different outcomes for innovation diffusion.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Policy Diffusion Dynamics in America , pp. 139 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010