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Groups and Political Thinking: The Role of Organized Interests in Attitude Formation
Groups and Political Thinking: The Role of Organized Interests in Attitude Formation
Working Paper Number sm1985-02
Abstract
This paper examines the role of organized interests in political thinking -- specifically, the impact of political interest groups on attitude formation and change. A consideration of the motivations for group involvement in attitude formation suggests that it is frequently neither necessary nor efficient for groups to change policymakers' attitudes about substantive policy issues in order to achieve desired policy outcomes. The attainment of policy goals is frequently aided, however, by “focusing” the general public's attention on policy problems to produce the ripe climates of opinion which facilitate mobilization activities. While focusing activities are not generally undertaken with the goal of producing enduring attitudes (or attitude change), they produce temporary increases in the magnitude or intensity of particular attitudes which may significantly influence our understanding of such attitudes as they are measured by survey research.
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