Farmed Out: Agricultural Lobbying in a Polarized Congress

Interest groups have a tremendous impact on public policy. Congressional capacity for research and fact-finding is at a historical low, and interest groups have rushed in to fill the gap. They effectively act as adjunct staffers by providing members of Congress with the necessary information to write legislation. Of course, none of this is done for free. Lobbying groups influence the content of policy in ways that further their own agendas. How have interest groups modified their strategies in response to the newly polarized and information-sparse political climate? And what are the implications for interest groups' influence over the content of policy? In Farmed Out, Clare R. Brock uses U.S. agricultural policy as a vehicle to explain how the rapidly polarizing political environment has altered the role of interest groups in Washington. Drawing on over two decades of lobbying behavior data in the agricultural sector, Brock argues that polarization has given interest groups greater influence over policy content, particularly among their ideological and partisan allies. Brock's findings suggest that lobbyists increasingly work on an extended time horizon, often with cross-cutting coalitions, in order to pursue policy outcomes that once might have been easy asks. As a result, lobbying influence appears to increasingly be skewed toward those interest groups who have the capacity to maintain a long-term presence on the Hill--in other words, affluent and relatively wealthy groups whose concerns might not reflect the preferences of most Americans. Farmed Out makes an important and original contribution to our understanding of how interest groups now operate within a context of heightened polarization, lengthened time horizons, and declining institutional capacity.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen: Bitter Partisanship and Uneasy Alliances Chapter 2. A Growing Policy Area: The Creation of Agriculture as a Staple of American Politics Chapter 3. Work Hard for the Money: Polarization and Evolving Lobbying Strategies Chapter 4. The (Not Quite) Business as Usual of Washington: Corporate Lobbying Strategies Chapter 5. Keeping Up with the Corporations: Interest Group Adaptation to Party Polarization in Congress Chapter 6. He Said, She Said: The Power of Interest Group Negotiations Chapter 7: Money, Money, Money: The Link between Influence and Wealth Chapter 8. Influencing a Polarized Congress: Herculean or Sisyphean? Appendix A: Notes on the Quantitative Methods Appendix B: Notes on Qualitative Methods Notes References Index

About the Author :
Clare R. Brock is an Assistant Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at Colorado State University. Her work focuses on the intersection of lobbying, partisanship, and policymaking, especially in the food and agricultural space. Prior to joining CSU, she was an Assistant Professor at Texas Woman's University.

Review :
Brock leverages insights from agricultural and food policy domains to paint a compelling picture of members of Congress as isolated, reelection-obsessed free agents dependent on lobbyists for information and coalition-building. Members also lack institutional support, suggesting that our image of Congress as the world's most well-resourced and independent legislative body needs reconsideration. In Brock's assessment, the core functions of Congress are shaped by groups and companies with the deepest pockets and whose priorities may not align with the majority of Americans as voters or consumers. Farmed Out makes important contributions to our understanding of how interest groups operate within a context of heightened partisanship and poor institutional capacity. Who governs? One wonders. Brock has completed an impressive study of lobbying in the contemporary Congress. Focused on agricultural policy, Farmed Out provides a rich and detailed account of how rising partisanship on Capitol Hill has made lobbyists key coalition builders. Lobbyists and interest groups increasingly function as important go-betweens and negotiators among lawmakers and have had to adapt their strategies to deal with a more challenging policymaking environment. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the contemporary lobbying environment in Washington. Brock's revised dissertation offers a detailed look at lobbying in the context of an increasingly polarized Congress from 1994 to 2014. She uses a wealth of quantitative data, interspersed with excerpts from lobbyist interviews, to articulate the players, the deleterious effects of polarization on congressional politics, and the challenges of the current lobbying environment.