The Power of the Party: Conflict Expansion and the Agenda Diversity of Interest Groups

• Author: E. J. Fagan,Zachary A. McGee,Herschel F. Thomas
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912919867142
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912919867142

Political Research Quarterly

2021, Vol. 74(1) 90 –102

© 2019 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912919867142

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Article

Recent scholarship has developed the concept of extended

political parties to capture the influence of networks of

interest groups and other intense policy demanders in the

American party system (Bawn et al. 2012; Bernstein and

Dominguez 2003; Cohen et al. 2008; Desmarais, La Raja,

and Kowal 2015; Grossmann and Dominguez 2009;

Koger, Masket, and Noel 2009, 2010; M. A. Schwartz

1990; Skinner 2004). This literature tends to focus on the

ability of these networks to constrain or shape the policy

agendas and preferences of political parties. In this article,

we examine the opposite: the impact of political parties on

the policy agenda of the interest groups. We argue that

interest groups that align themselves with political parties

behave differently from interest groups that do not. As pre-

dicted by Schattschneider (1960), interest groups that align

closely with political parties expand the scope of conflicts

that they participate in. Groups then begin to take positions

on policy that may be outside of their core mission and do

so at their own peril. We claim that the expansion may be

caused by both rational, policy-seeking behavior and

boundedly rational motivations outside of the organiza-

tion’s mission. Various mechanisms—ranging from elec-

toral incentives, reciprocity, identification with the means,

and cue-taking behavior—result in a more cohesive

extended party network where groups are more likely to

take positions on issues outside of their typical niches and

in cooperation with their aligned political party.

Schattschneider (1942, 37) once wrote that the “pos-

session of the vast resources of a modern government, its

authority, its organization, administrative establishment,

and so on, will provide something for nearly everyone

willing to join hands in the political enterprise.” We argue

that extended political parties provide both opportunities

and costs for interest groups. Through alignment with

parties, groups gain the ability to weigh in on more issues

than they may otherwise be able to, and therefore access

the vast resources of modern government. But, they also

risk being drawn into fights they may not otherwise wish

to enter.

We examine the relationship between party alignment

and the diversity of interest group agendas by examining

the policy content of position-taking on bills considered

by the 110th to 113th Congress. We draw our sample from

Schlozman et al.’s (2011) “Washington Representatives”

data set and link organizations to bill position information

made available by Maplight. We measure the policy

867142PRQXXX10.1177/1065912919867142Political Research QuarterlyFagan et al.

research-article2019

1University of Texas at Austin, USA

2University of Texas at Arlington, USA

Corresponding Author:

Herschel F. Thomas, Department of Political Science, University of

Texas at Arlington, Box 19539, 601 S. Nedderman Drive, Arlington,

TX 76019, USA.

Email: herschel.thomas@uta.edu

The Power of the Party: Conflict

Expansion and the Agenda Diversity

of Interest Groups

E. J. Fagan1, Zachary A. McGee1, and Herschel F. Thomas2

Abstract

To what extent do political parties have an effect on the policy-related activity of interest groups? Drawing from

ideas of conflict expansion and the structure of extended party networks, we argue that political parties are able to

pull interest groups into more policy conflicts than they otherwise would be involved in. We posit that parties are

able to draw interest groups to be active outside of established issue niches. We suggest that several mechanisms—

shared partisan electoral incentives, reciprocity, identification with the means, and cue-taking behavior—lead groups

to participate in more diverse political conflicts. By linking data on interest group bill positions and the policy content

of legislation, we generate a novel measure of 158 interest groups’ alignment with political parties. We find that the

more an interest group is ideologically aligned with a political party, the more diverse their issue agenda becomes.

Keywords

political parties, policy agendas, interest groups, extended party networks