Lobbying Inside (and) Out: Interest Groups on Twitter

• In Event: Explaining Lobbying Patterns and Lobbying Strategies

Abstract

For years, studies of lobbying have drawn distinctions between outside lobbying – activities such as protests, demonstrations, and media strategies that put indirect pressure on policymakers – and inside lobbying – behind the scenes activities like private meetings and campaign contributions that build and leverage direct relationships with policymakers (see, e.g. Walker 1991, Kollman 1998). These studies have found that while all groups increasingly use all available tactics, citizens’ advocacy groups favor outside lobbying, and business and trade associations favor inside lobbying (Grossmann 2012). This project reexamines this literature in the context of the recent growth in the use of social media by both interest groups and policy makers. We ask whether existing patterns of lobbying are replicated in the digital environment. We theorize that citizen’s advocacy groups will be most likely to engage in an online form of outside lobbying, using social media to inform the public and build grassroots support for their policy agendas. In contrast, we expect that business and professional groups will be less likely to engage in social media and, when they do use it, are more likely to use social media platforms to build and reinforce relationships with policymakers and industry insiders. We test these expectations using an original dataset of Tweets from interest groups and policymakers.

Authors

• Kirsten Widner, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• Maggie Macdonald, New York University