Lobbying Regulations and Political Equality in the American States.
Authors:
Flavin, Patrick1
Source:
American Politics Research.
Mar2015, Vol. 43 Issue 2, p304-326. 23p.
Document Type:
Article
Subject Terms:
*LOBBYING -- Law & legislation
*EQUALITY
*RESEARCH
*POLITICAL participation
*LOBBYISTS
*DECISION making in political
science
*CAPITOLS
*REPRESENTATIVE government
*U.S. states -- Politics
& government
UNITED States
LAW & legislation
Author-Supplied Keywords:
lobbying regulations
political inequality
political representation
public policy
Abstract:
Laws that regulate the
conduct of professional lobbyists in statehouses across the nation are one
attempt to ensure that citizens’ opinions receive more equal consideration when
elected officials make policy decisions. Do states with stricter lobbying regulations
actually display more egalitarian patterns of political representation? Using
public opinion measures from the National Annenberg Election Surveys and data
on state policies, this article first demonstrates that state policy decisions
are consistently more proximate to the opinions of affluent citizens. I then
evaluate the relationship between the stringency of state lobbying regulations
and representational equality across the states and find evidence that states
with stricter regulations weigh citizens’ opinions more equally in the
policymaking process. These findings suggest that lobbying regulations can play
an important role in promoting greater political equality. [ABSTRACT FROM
PUBLISHER]
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