The conventional wisdom about lobbying is that lobbying and spending on lobbying are consistently increasing over time. Popular accounts create an image of hordes of lobbyists descending on Washington, D.C. While this understanding of the general trend is supported by the numbers, this chapter provides more detailed information about these trends. Within the general trends, there are significant variations in activity that reveal characteristics of the behavior of the Washington lobbying community.
What We Know About Why Organizations Become Politically Active
What motivates an organization to become active politically? The answer to this question is multifaceted. Lobbying is motivated by both push factors and pull factors. In other words, the organization may be motivated to lobby by both the internal imperatives of the organization or by competition with others in the industry, but also by the actions of government to which the organization feels compelled to respond. Lobbying can be shaped by the availability of government contracts, spending, or other government benefits. The following sections begin with examples of the types of benefits for which organizations lobby, followed by a discussion of the push and pull factors that have been studied in previous research on lobbying.
What Do Organizations Seek When They Lobby?
The benefits organizations seek from Congress and the executive branch are varied and can include collective or private benefits, material or nonmaterial benefits, benefits that are broadly targeted and benefits that accrue narrowly to a single organization. The collective benefits may have an impact on an entire segment of society such as a prescription drug benefit for seniors, or an entire economic sector. Collective benefits include favorable regulation for an industry, occupational licenses or import protections that create barriers to entry for industry competitors, tax on Internet purchases, or tort reform.1 More narrowly targeted collective benefits include, for example, nutrition standards for school lunches, price supports for certain products, and classifications for solid waste. An alternative type of benefit is private rather than collective in nature. There is a wide array of private benefits for which organizations lobby and these include railroad mergers, mineral rights, funds for local infrastructure, and government contracts for goods and services. Nonmaterial benefits include policies for gun control, civil rights, or criminal justice policy. There is an almost endless array of benefits that organizations seek from government.
The Push Factors
What are the conditions that drive organizations to become active in Washington? Some mobilization is attributed to economic conditions. The conventional wisdom is that lobbying is countercyclical and levels of lobby increase during times of economic downturn. In lean periods organizations go to Washington in pursuit of benefits or support from the federal government.2
Another factor that can influence the number of organizations that lobby is simply the number of organizations that exist that have the potential to lobby.3 If a large number of colleges and universities exist, then a correspondingly large number of them will be present in the Washington lobbying community. Similarly, the size of an economy is associated with levels of lobbying. A larger economy in the form of gross state product (GSP) or gross domestic product (GDP) can sustain more organizations that have the potential to mobilize.4 For example, because California has a larger economy than Montana, more organizations from California will be active in Washington.
Additionally, we know that activity begets activity. Organizations countermobilize in response to interests that are active on the opposing side of the issue. For example, a business facing opposition from an environmental or citizensā group may mobilize and become politically active to address the challenge to their preferred outcome.5 Organizations are more likely to become active and register to lobby when their interests are opposed by an interest that is already active lobbying.6
A number of studies have also evaluated whether industry structure in terms of levels of concentration influences the number of organizations that lobby. This can be geographic concentration or concentration of an industry within a few large firms.7
This set of push factors creates conditions that motivate organizations of all sortsāstate and local governments, nonprofit advocacy groups, or corporationsāto mobilize and become politically active in Washington. Economic conditions, for example, have an impact on state and local governments as well as businesses.
The Pull Factors
What are the factors that pull organizations to Washington? Government decisions include both benefits and costs for organizations that lobby. In a study of corporate political activity, Wendy Hansen and Neil Mitchell note these two types of factors, saying āon the revenue side, political activities may be targeted at procuring government contracts or price supports and tariffs. On the cost side, political activities may be targeted at reducing regulatory or labor costs or securing tax relief.ā8
Organizations respond to the regulatory activity of the agencies of the federal government. The activities of the Federal Communications Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies have an economic impact and organizations respond in order to have a role in the outcome of the regulatory process.9
Federal spending on contracts for goods and services also draw organizations to lobby in competition for those types of private benefits.10 For example, Accenture which is a consulting and technology firm, and Visual Purple, which is an organization...
