Brussels Versus the Beltway: Advocacy in the United States and the European Union

Author/Contributor(s):	Mahoney, Christine ; Mahoney, Christine
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Date:	03/25/2008
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

Armed with extensive new data, Christine Mahoney explores what determines US and EU advocacy strategies and policy success. Challenging the conventional stereotypes that attribute any differences between the two systems to cultural ones--the American approach is partisan and combative, the European is consensus-based--she probes in depth the process of advocacy that interest groups use in their attempts to influence public policy. She analyzes the institutional structures, the types of issues, and the characteristics of the interest groups themselves to gain new insights into the process of lobbying on both sides of the Atlantic. Based on 149 interviews involving 47 issues, she considers such factors as democratic responsibility, the nature of the media systems, the selection of targets, arguments, and strategies, the presence of focusing events, and the resources of the interest groups. This comparative analysis sheds new light on the lobbying process in both capitals, in particular on the bias in favor of wealthy interests in the policymaking process. This book will be of interest to those working in the fields of policymaking, interest groups and lobbying, comparative politics, and European studies.