Interest Group Access to the Bureaucracy,Parliament, and the Media

A key issue for interest groups and policymakers is the ways through which organized interests voice their interests and influence public policy. This article combines two perspectives on interest group representation to explain patterns of interest group access to different political arenas. From a resource exchange perspective, it argues that access to different political arenas is discrete as it is determined by the match between the supply and demands of interest groups and gatekeepers—politicians, bureaucrats, and reporters. From a partly competing perspective, it is argued that access is cumulative and converges around wealthy and professionalized groups. Based on a large‐scale investigation of group presence in Danish political arenas, the analyses show a pattern of privileged pluralism. This describes a system where multiple political arenas provide opportunities for multiple interests but where unequally distributed resources produce cumulative effects (i.e., the same groups have high levels of arena access).     

Antifa,Street Gangs,and the Importance of Group Processes

This essay reviews David Pyrooz and James Densley’s “On Public Protest, Violence, and Street Gangs” and raises new questions about the ways in which Antifa is similar to and different from social movements; the processes by which “factions within Antifa” become gangs; and the dynamic nature of relationships and interactions between and among violent and non-violent segments. It concludes with a note about the everchanging nature of social life and importance of flexibility in the design and execution of research in capturing this reality.     

Value Conflict, Group Affect, and the Issue of Campaign Finance

The issue of campaign finance reform creates a potential conflict between the democratic values of expression and equality. Using a unique experiment embedded in a national survey of the American electorate, we examine the extent to which group affect influences citizens' commitment to these values and how it contributes to the resolution of value conflict. We find that citizens' commitment to the values of expression and equality in the campaign finance system is structured by their feelings toward those whose rights and influence are perceived to be at stake. Our analysis further shows that the effects of group affect are conditioned by issue frame. The effects of group affect are less pronounced when campaign finance is framed as an issue of political expression and rights than when it is framed in terms of political equality and influence. Finally, we find that affective information contributes to the resolution of value conflict by helping citizens to make tradeoffs between competing values in judgment situations.     

The Banking Crisis: Grid,Group and the State of the Debate

The banking crisis and the recession it induced provide a salient backdrop to domestic and international politics. ² The International Monetary Fund (IMF 2010) estimates that total banking losses between 2008 and 2010 exceeded US$2.3 trillion. This article uses grid‐group theory to review the existing literature on the causes of the banking crisis and, in doing so, distinguishes between hierarchical, individualist, egalitarian and fatalist accounts of what went wrong and of what needs to be done to prevent another crisis from occurring. It is argued that the existing reform agenda is underpinned by a hierarchical analysis of the causes of the crisis and that this risks narrowing the support base for the reform process.     

Development Ballot Measures, Interest Group Endorsements, and the Political Geography of Growth Preferences

In response to rapid population and economic growth, many communities have turned to voter initiatives to resolve their land use disputes. We find that despite strong public concern about growth, voters often support measures that allow or encourage new development. We consider the sources of this support by analyzing patterns of voting on a range of prodevelopment ballot initiatives. These initiatives provide a valuable opportunity to understand how economic self-interest, geography, interest group endorsements, and public goods affect citizen support for development policies. We find that interest group endorsements significantly increase public support for new development. These endorsements help voters evaluate the personal impact of complex development proposals and allow voters to behave in ways that reflect a high degree of sophistication .     

Corporatism, Pluralism, and Swedish Interest Group Influence in Social Welfare Policymaking

Corporatism and pluralism predict different characteristics of interest groups; their environments are important in understanding the level of influence that these groups have. This article describes variables related to these theoretical approaches and tests them as determinants of two operationalizations of interest group influence, one objective and one reputational. Results of these tests on Swedish interest group information indicate that, although Sweden has usually been considered a model corporatist political system, the situation is more complicated, with some pluralist factors being quite important. The study suggests that interest group influence may be more objectively determinable than is usually believed.     

利益集团

西方国家中基于共同利益要求而组成的社会团体。 切身利益是利益集团形成的主要原因。早在18世纪末．美国就出现了全国啤酒制造商协会、全国棉花生产商协会等利益集团。     

城市群理论与都市圈理论比较

城市群理论和都市圈理论是关于中国城镇体系规划和区域经济组织形式的两个主要理论,但二者容易让人产生混淆。其实,这两种理论是关于区域经济发展的不同组织模式,其发展动力、发展定位和组织形态上存在很大的差异。对这两种理论的比较研究有益于我国城镇化进程和区域经济的发展。     

Interest Group Competition over Policy Outcomes: Dynamics,Strategic Behavior,and Social Costs

This paper analyzes a two-period model of interestgroup competition between two groups to affect thepolicy outcome. The paper characterizes the subgameperfect equilibrium and considers the welfareimplications of the model. The subgame perfectequilibrium to this game is allocatively efficient ifand only if the initial equilibrium is allocativelyefficient and interest groups are equally adept atproducing political pressure. When rent seeking isconstitutionally protected, the notion of rent-seekingconstrained efficiency is defined as the cooperativesolution to the rent-seeking game. It is shown that arent-seeking constrained efficient equilibrium isattainable by forcing winners in political competitionto fully compensate losers.     

关于低收入群体的政治心态

在全面建设小康社会的过程中 ,低收入群体的政治心态是全国经济、社会、政治运行的晴雨表 ,关系到改革、发展与稳定大局 ,关系到地区和全国的长期政治安定。研究低收入群体的政治心态 ,可从其现实表现入手 ,分析其不同类型 ,研究其深层原因 ,把握其变化趋向 ,从而采取促进其积极变化发展的对策。这样做的目的 ,在于维护长期的政治安定与和谐 ,加速实现全面建设小康社会的目标。     

Resources, Group Conflict and Symbols: Explaining Anti-Immigration Hostility in Britain

This article analyses the causes of variation in attitudes to immigration policy in the UK. The key theoretical approaches emphasised are: the role of self-interest; group conflict over resources; and group conflict over important symbols of Britishness. The connection between perceptions of immigration and crime is also investigated. Based on the 2003 British Social Attitudes Survey, the findings indicate that self-interest has very little bearing on opposition to immigration and that British citizens instead appear to be most concerned with threats to ingroup resources posed by immigration, threats to the shared customs and traditions of British society (particularly those posed by Muslims) and – to a lesser extent – the potential for increased crime that may result from immigration.     

冲击铁路群体性治安事件的预防

积极预防冲击铁路群体性治安事件的发生 ,对于维护社会稳定、发展经济具有十分重要的意义。作者从加快社会主义法治经济的发展步伐 ,健全完善社会保障体系 ,落实以德治国和依法治国方针 ,落实综合治理措施化 ,社会预警机制建设五个方面进行了全面论述。     

冲击铁路群体性治安事件的原因

造成冲击铁路群体性治安事件的原因是复杂的 ,多方面的 ,既有主观方面的原因 ,也有客观方面的因素。对此笔者从政治、经济、社会、文化和心理五个方面进行了分析 ,阐明了带有普遍规律性和特殊性的结论。     

冲击铁路群体性治安事件的处置

处置冲击铁路群体性治安事件是一项政策性、原则性非常强的工作 ,能否依法、果断妥善处置 ,作者从处置的准备、处置的原则、处置的组织指导与协调、紧急处置和善后处置五个方面进行了阐述。