The Hollow Core: Private Interests in National Policy Making

Critics of the policy-making process argue that private interest groups exert too much influence on the decisions of government, but only rarely has this proposition been examined systematically. The Hollow Core draws on interviews with more than 300 interest groups, 800 lobbyists, and 300 government officials to assess the efforts of private organizations to influence federal policy in four areas--agriculture, energy, health, and labor policy.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments PART I: Introduction The Lawyer and the Heavyweight The Policy Domains Representatives and Their Clients PART II:The Washington Representatives The Organization of Work The Careers of Representatives Ideology, Colleague Networks, and Professional Autonomy PART III: Targets of Representation Contact with Government Institutions The Government officials PART IV: Consensus and Conflict Allies and Adversaries Elite Networks in National Policy Making Participation and Success in Policy Decisions Conclusion Structure and Uncertainty in Private Interest Representation Notes References Index

About the Author :
John P. Heinz is Distinguished Research Fellow, American Bar Foundation, and Owen L. Coon Professor of Law, Northwestern University. Edward O. Laumann is George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology, and Provost, University of Chicago. Robert L. Nelson is Research Fellow, American Bar Foundation, and Associate Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University. Robert H. Salisbury is Sidney Souers Professor of American Government, Washington University in St. Louis.

Review :
The Hollow Core is by far the most comprehensive survey yet of the Washington lobbyists’ life and work… A much more complete and credible analysis about the way modern Washington works emerges than in so many previous accounts. The most thorough and masterly treatment ever delivered of the role of private interests in national policy making. The Hollow Core will constitute the solid center of research in this field for years to come. It teaches us much, not only about private interests but also about policy making. A monumental piece of empirical research that will be required reading for anyone concerned with interest group representation in the United States. [The Hollow Core] reports on interest groups and their representatives in the grand tradition of American social and behavioral science, theoretically driven and empirically grounded—a work of major, well-executed research by a superb team of investigators. The Hollow Core is a rigorous, path-breaking study of the structure of influence in Washington politics. It is the first work to offer abundant data and sophisticated comparative analysis of issue networks in the policy-making process. This is an absolutely superb book that will be read for years and years to come. This is an important study of that crucial but poorly understood group of men and women, Washington representatives, or as they are better known, lobbyists. The authors have put together an enormous amount of fresh data and explored areas of law and politics that have been sadly neglected in the past. It is a monumental effort, and I feel sure that it will be cited with respect and attention for many years to come. At a time when Americans have grown more concerned than ever about the power of ‘special’ interests in Washington, The Hollow Core delivers the most comprehensive empirical study ever accomplished of lobbyists, their clients, their contracts, their networks, and their accomplishments. The authors’ conclusions, generated from a highly sophisticated analysis of hundreds of personal interviews, are sure to surprise anyone wedded to conventional wisdoms. This book will long dominate the study of influence in America.