These in-depth profiles of major non-governmental organizations show how they compete to protect consumer or business interests ranging across all stages of American life from baby foods to funerals. The analyses of 109 interest groups portray a wide array of the political tactics that have helped shape consumer policy over the past generation. Drawing upon materials from the organizations themselves, as well as from other original and secondary sources, the profiles depict who the groups represent, their goals, how they were founded, their resources, organizational structures and procedures, the services and benefits that they offer, the issues that they address, and the tactics that they use to affect federal policy. Students, teachers, policymakers, administrators, consumer and business activities and interest group watchdogs will learn through this pioneering new reference who gets what in the marketplace and in politics and why. Drawing upon materials from the organizations themselves, as well as from other original and secondary sources, the profiles depict who the groups represent, their goals, how they were founded, their resources, organization structures and procedures, and the services and benefits that they offer. The profiles also describe specific issues that the groups address, their positions, and their tactics and ways in which they try to affect federal policymaking-from boycotts to group buying, research, testifying before congressional committees, serving on executive department advisory committees, election candidate ratings, filing lawsuits, publicizing research results, becoming media experts on particular subjects, and persuading members to contact a member of Congress. Students, teachers, policymakers, administrators, consumer and business activists and watchdogs will learn through this pioneering new reference who gets what in the marketplace and in politics and why.

This volume analyses the interaction of business lobbyists, consumer critics, and government officials for the first time in 20 years. It offers important new insights and revisionist views about the impact of consumer issue networks in the making of public policy in Congress during the 1980s and 1990s. It shows how consumer groups lobby Congressional committees and their leaders and staffers to reform legislation in areas of critical concern. This text for undergraduate and graduate courses in American politics, business and government, lobbying and interest group behavior, and political sociology covers the expanding range and activities of consumer lobbyists in recent years and gives a short history of their role in Congressional decisionmaking from the Progressive and New Deal eras to the present. The study details their activities in terms of civic outcomes (campaign finance, intervenor funding, freedom of information); consumer protection (impure food, unsafe drugs, autos, toys, and household appliances); economic regulation and deregulation (airlines, financing services, trucking, and telecommunications); and highly politicized pocketbook issues (health care, tax, energy, income, and trade policies). Journalists, activists, and students of politics, business administration, and sociology will find the conclusions about consumers, businesses, and Congressional decisionmaking and the arguments for government and citizen activism arresting.

In the 1980s, record numbers of Americans have qualified for food stamps and food aid in other forms, despite increasingly rigid standards of eligibility. After more than two decades of such assistance, hunger and malnutrition remain widespread among low-income groups in the United States. This new study examines the policy processes that have shaped food assistance programs since the Kennedy administration and looks at prospects for resolving the political stalemate over food aid that has overtaken national policy. Following an analysis of the dynamics of the policy process, Professor Maney explores the various changes that have affected assistance policy since its first phase beginning in 1933. She describes the shifting course of aid policy, which first aimed at supporting farm income and disposing of agricultural surpluses and more recently has attempted to deal primarily with hunger and severe malnutrition. Focusing on conflicts over policy objectives and budget, the author traces the ups and downs of the struggle between the executive branch and Congress to control both policy and appropriations. Other topics considered are the role of Department of Agriculture planners and administrators, the influence of powerful agricultural interests, the efforts of antipoverty and civil rights activists to secure more equitable food distribution in the rural South, and the effects of joblessness on food assistance policy. A clear and balanced analysis of one of the gravest policy dilemmas facing the nation, this book is an important resource for professionals, politicians, academics, and students concerned with public policy, social issues, government, and contemporary political economy.