Unique in bringing together contributions from academics and practitioners on the theme of strategic, intelligent modern lobbying this book provides a thorough and accessible discussion on key ideas pertinent to the pursuance of public affairs in the European Union. Combining innovative academic research with first-hand professional experience it offers the reader a combination of practical recommendations, case studies and academic theory to add new insights to interest group research and lobbying strategies. While focusing on the European Union the contributors acknowledge the multi-level dimension of EU decision-making and incorporate research on multi-level governance as well as lobbying by sub-national authorities. Through this they present a fuller picture of a subject that should appeal to students, academics and practitioners alike.

Caciquismo (roughly translated as "boss politics") has played a major role in Mexican political and social life. Loosely knit interest groups, or "caciques", of diverse character - syndicates, farmers, left- and right-wingers, white-collar workers - have exercised great power within Mexico's distinctive political system. The peculiarities of Mexico's system have greatly depended on this kind of informal politics, which combines repression, patronage, and charismatic leadership. As such, caciquismo fits uncomfortably within the formal analysis of laws, parties, and elections and has been relatively neglected by academics. Though its demise has often been predicted, it has survived, evolved, and adjusted to Mexico's rapid post-revolutionary transformation. Incorporating the research of historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists, this book reevaluates the crucial role of the cacique in modern Mexico. It suggests that caciquismo has survived decades of change and upheaval and remains an important, if underestimated, feature of recent Mexican politics. Contributors include Christopher Boyer (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA), Keith Brewster (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK), Matthew Butler (Queen's University, Belfast, UK), Marco Calderon (El Colegio de Michoacan, Mexico), Maria Teresa Fernandez Aceves (Centro de Investigaciones en Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social [CIESAS], Mexico), Rogelio Hernandez Rodriuez (El Colegio de Mexico), Stephen Lewis (California State University, Chico, USA), Salvador Maldonado Aranda (El Colegio de Michoacan, Mexico), Jennie Purnell (Boston College, USA), Jan Rus (Tzotzil Instituto de Asesoria Antropologica para la Region Maya, and Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, USA), Pieter de Vries (Wageningen University, Netherlands), and J. Eduardo Zarate H (El Colegio de Mexico, Michoacan, Mexico).

With Congress more partisan than ever, the White House eager to mobilize group support, the appropriations process in flux, and important interest group litigation in the courts, this volume confirms that navigating the complex world of inside-the-beltway politics is especially tricky. For interest groups, the name of the game is access. The Interest Group Connection's twenty chapters show how organized interests gain that access in Washington. Brief and accessible readings explore the connections between lobbyists' influence and American policymaking institutions and processes, as well as the crucial role interest groups play in organizing constituencies, protecting their rights, and giving them entree into the political process. Given the current environment-new campaign finance laws, the prevalence of "527" committees, and a near-even electoral environment-the second edition provides an inside look at a changed political world.

Legislatures have one core defining function: that of giving assent to measures that, by virtue of that assent, are to be binding on society. In practice, they have usually performed other roles as well, such as debating measures or the conduct of public affairs. They have existed for centuries. They span the globe. Most countries have one; federal states have several. Commentators throughout the 20th century have bemoaned the decline of legislatures, yet the number shows no sign of declining; if anything, the reverse and their prominence has increased in the 1990s because of developments in central and eastern Europe.

Critics of the policy-making process argue that private interest groups exert too much influence on the decisions of government, but only rarely has this proposition been examined systematically. "The Hollow Core" draws on interviews with more than 300 interest groups, 800 lobbyists, and 300 government officials to assess the efforts of private organizations to influence federal policy in four areas--agriculture, energy, health, and labor policy.

Surveys reveal that a majority of Americans believe government is run for special interests, not public interest. The increased presence and power of lobbyists in Washington and the excesses of PAC and campaign contributions, in-kind benefits, and other favors would seem to indicate a government of weak public servants corrupted by big private-interest groups.

But as Fred McChesney shows, this perspective affords only a partial understanding of why private interests are paying, and what they are paying for. Consider, for example, Citicorp, the nation's largest banking company, whose registered lobbyists spend most of their time blocking legislation that could hurt any one of the company's credit-card, loan, or financial-service operations. What this scenario suggests, the author argues, is that payments to politicians are often made not for political favors, but to avoid political disfavor, that is, as part of a system of political extortion or "rent extraction."

The basic notion of rent extraction is simple: because the state can legally take wealth from its citizens, politicians can extort from private parties payments not to expropriate private wealth. In that sense, rent (that is, wealth) extraction is "money for nothing"--money paid in exchange for politicians' inaction. After constructing this model of wealth extraction, McChesney tests it with many examples, including several involving routine proposals of tax legislation, followed by withdrawal for a price. He also shows how the model applies more generally to regulation. Finally, he examines how binding contracts are written between private interests and politicians not to extract wealth.

This book, standingsquarely at the intersection of law, political science, and economics, vividly illustrates the patterns of legal extortion underlying the current fabric of interest-group politics.

"Ardent Spirit" covers the full range of the temperance idea in America, beginning in the early seventeenth century and continuing through the prohibition years, 1919-1933. Using a wide variety of sources, Kobler quotes the amusing and often startling comments relating to the efforts of prohibitionists and lawmakers, so that the speakeasies, the rum-running, the bootleggers, and the gang wars all come vividly to life. Here too are portraits of eccentrics, instant millionaires, law enforcement officers, and murderers--all part of the Noble Experiment which proved to be one of the most tragicomic sagas in American history.

Lord Hugh Cecil, commenting in 1912 on the British Conservative party's staying power, said that the party's success was largely a matter of temperament, "recruited from...the natural conservatism that is found in almost every human mind." The Conservatives regarded the parties of the left as faddists or federations of pressure groups. In this thorough analysis, Coetzee examines the condition of the Conservative party during the two decades preceding World War I--a transitional period for the party, marked by the foundation of an unprecedented number of conservative pressure groups. Cecil's comment, Coetzee argues, obscures the extent to which conservative pressure groups forced their party to adapt in Edwardian England. The British Navy League, the Tariff Reform League, the Anti-Socialist Union, and a host of other groups changed the face of British conservatism, though not without considerable internal party conflict. In addition to providing a complete account of the pressure groups' origins, organizations, successes, and failures, Coetzee ties their histories to the debates within the Conservative party itself, and to the local elections. In so doing, he demonstrates how the party of the right was ultimately able to convince the electorate that its views were more "national" and "patriotic" than those of the parties of the left.

As the life expectancy of the average American continues to increase and the baby-boom generation moves toward retirement, the near future will see ever larger numbers of older citizens whose welfare and guarantees of equity and social justice are the subjects of heated debate in Washington. In recent years Medicare, Social Security, and other federal programs that aid older Americans have come under attack by political conservatives who claim that such programs drain the budget at the expense of people under age 65. At this critical period in the history of the senior rights movement, Lawrence Alfred Powell, John B. Williamson, and Kenneth J. Branco provide a comprehensive and enlightening analysis of the dynamics of aging-policy reform and its development over the past two centuries. Using examples of political rhetoric and media images dating from colonial days to the present, they trace the conflict between progressive senior-rights advocates and conservative opponents of reform in order to frame the debate over societal definitions of fairness and social justice in old age, emphasizing the role played by symbolic politics in these struggles. Their account underscores the importance of the symbolic gestures and countergestures that have been used by both senior-rights advocates and their opponents to influence the direction of events and to sway public opinion on aging issues.

The central concern of this study is to examine why people choose to join campaigning groups, such as Friends of the Earth or Amnesty, in preference to political parties. Particular emphasis, however, is given to environmental campaign groups. Environmental issues gained increasing political importance in the 1980s, and the environment is subsequently mentioned in almost every policy development. There is now a high level of public interest in dozens of environmental pressure groups. In this new study of two of the best known campaigning groups Grant Jordan and William Maloney ask: why do people choose to join Friends of the Earth or Amnesty International? Who joins? How are they targeted? Why do some leave? Drawing on mainly British and American sources, the authors discuss the significance of the two groups for democracy, and comment on the current commitment of the public to campaigning.