Conversion and Replacement: Interest Group Strategies and Polarization

• In Event: Interest Group Mobilization and Population Dynamics

Abstract

In recent years, scholars of American politics have noted the importance of interest groups to party nominations and party position-taking. Meanwhile, work on polarization suggests that party position change among elected representatives takes place through two aggregate processes: conversion and replacement. I argue that these processes of conversion and replacement have parallels in two types of interest group strategies for influencing policy through party politics. First, conversion strategies seek to persuade political actors to take the interest group’s position. Second, replacement strategies focus on replacing unfavourable party personnel or policy with those more favourable to the interest group. This is done when interest groups find and vet candidates and support them through nominations and general elections. I support this argument with a comparative-historical analysis of social conservative organizations’ efforts to influence American and Canadian parties. With cross-country and over-time variation, I illustrate interest group strategies as mechanisms of polarization, the importance of party rules and organization to shaping interest group involvement, and open the door to further comparative study of interest group strategies and polarization.

Author

• Elizabeth Baisley, Princeton University