Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 219-238
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Lacombe
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
National Rifle Association ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Gun Debate

This chapter looks toward the future of both the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the gun debate more broadly. It discusses potential threats to the NRA's political influence, including its own internal struggles, the rise of more effective gun control advocacy organizations, and the potential downsides of its close relationship with the Republican Party. The chapter also talks about the potential generalizability of the book's findings to other groups and policy areas. It considers the lessons that other groups might learn from the NRA in terms of cultivating and using ideational power. Ultimately, the chapter notes its implications for our understanding of interest groups and political parties, and reflects on the NRA's place in American democracy.

Firepower

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Lacombe
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
National Rifle Association ◽  
Powerful Interest ◽  
Active Base

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is one of the most powerful interest groups in America, and has consistently managed to defeat or weaken proposed gun regulations — even despite widespread public support for stricter laws and the prevalence of mass shootings and gun-related deaths. This book provides an unprecedented look at how this controversial organization built its political power and deploys it on behalf of its pro-gun agenda. Taking readers from the 1930s to the age of Donald Trump, the book traces how the NRA's immense influence on national politics arises from its ability to shape the political outlooks and actions of its followers. The book draws on nearly a century of archival records and surveys to show how the organization has fashioned a distinct worldview around gun ownership and has used it to mobilize its supporters. It reveals how the NRA's cultivation of a large, unified, and active base has enabled it to build a resilient alliance with the Republican Party, and examines why the NRA and its members formed an important constituency that helped fuel Trump's unlikely political rise. The book sheds vital new light on how the NRA has grown powerful by mobilizing average Americans, and how it uses its GOP alliance to advance its objectives and shape the national agenda.

The Party-Group Alignment of the NRA and the GOP

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-185
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Lacombe
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
National Rifle Association ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Active Player ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Party Group

This chapter chronicles the party–group alignment of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the GOP, detailing the constellation of factors that collectively facilitated this alignment, which began in the 1960s, culminated during the 1980 election, and has deepened in the decades since. It reveals how the NRA's cultivation of a group social identity and gun-centric political ideology made its supporters an attractive demographic group to conservative politicians, and laid the foundation for the group's eventual incorporation into the Republican coalition. The chapter also delves into the NRA's motivations for entering the realm of partisan politics, showing how funding challenges and internal conflicts led to the 1977 “Revolt at Cincinnati,” after which the NRA quickly became an active player in GOP politics. Ultimately, the chapter analyzes public opinion polls to document gun owners' increasing close relationship with the Republican Party — especially following the election of President Donald Trump.

scholarly journals From Garden State to Gun Control State: New Jersey’s 1966 Firearms Law and the NRA’s Rise as a Political Lobby

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-108
Author(s):  
Chris Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Control Law ◽  
National Rifle Association ◽  
Second Amendment ◽  
Gun Laws ◽  
Control State

In 1966, the New Jersey legislature passed An Act Concerning Firearms and Other Dangerous Weapons, which imposed significant regulations on gun buyers and dealers. Two years later, members of Congress frequently cited the Garden State’s tough gun control law as a model for the Gun Control Act of 1968. Although New Jersey’s 1966 firearms law has received little attention from scholars, the battle over gun control in New Jersey marked a significant turning point in the nationwide debate between supporters and opponents of gun control and exposed political fissures that endure today. The National Rifle Association (NRA) mobilized its membership to pressure New Jersey legislators to reject gun control. In its effort to oppose gun control in New Jersey, the NRA honed its arguments that gun control infringed upon citizens’ Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms,” contended that gun laws would not reduce crime, and charged that keeping records of gun sales would ultimately lead to confiscation of firearms. The NRA’s fight against gun control in Trenton revealed the organization’s enormous influence and signaled its emergence as one of the most effective political interest groups in the United States.

Putting Donald Trump in Historical Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug McAdam
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
And Behavior

The tumultuous onset of Donald Trump’s administration has so riveted public attention that observers are in danger of losing a historical perspective. Trump’s rhetoric and behavior are so extreme that the tendency is to see him and the divisions he embodies as something new in American politics. Instead, Trump is only the most extreme expression of a brand of racial politics practiced ever more brazenly by the Republican Party since the 1960s. His unexpected rise to power was aided by a number of institutional developments in American politics that also have older roots. In the spirit of trying to understand these historical forces, the chapter describes (a) the origins and evolution of the exclusionary brand of racial politics characteristic of the Republican Party since the 1960s, and (b) three illiberal institutions that aided Trump’s rise to power, and that, if left unchanged, will continue to threaten the survival of American democracy.

Political Economy and Partisan Government

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaad Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Class Analysis ◽  
Economic Support ◽  
Business Support

This is one of key chapters of the book presenting the argument of partisan government. This chapter interrogates the subnational variation in labour reforms through partisan governments and suggests regional political economy as critical to shaping orientation of partisan governments. It critically analyses the existing party-based interpretation of reform and shows that it is the instrumental interest assuaging the interests of support base that explain government orientation to labour reform. Through a caste/class analysis of political parties, the chapter highlights that significant business support and socio-economically homogeneous dominant support base characterize states with greater market flexibility. In contrast, when the dominant support base of party is heterogeneous and wide, the pace of reform is significantly muted. Partisan configuration—the socio-economic support base of government—determines not only the orientation of policies but also the interrelation between government and various interest groups in society.

The Persuasion Effects of Political Endorsements

2019 ◽  
pp. 223-242
Author(s):  
Cheryl Boudreau
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Observational Study ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Controlled Environment ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Political Persuasion

Political endorsements (recommendations about which candidate or policy to support) are ubiquitous in political contexts. They may come from political parties, interest groups, politicians, or even celebrities. Can uninformed citizens identify endorsers who share their interests and use their recommendations as substitutes for detailed political information? This chapter surveys the literature on the persuasion effects of political endorsements. It first provides an overview of theoretical models that examine how political endorsements affect citizens’ choices. Then, it describes a seminal observational study of how endorsements affect political persuasion. It next discusses experimental research that assesses the effects of endorsements. It emphasizes that experiments are particularly useful for identifying when political endorsements will persuade citizens because they allow scholars to manipulate the conditions that theoretical models identify in a carefully controlled environment. It concludes by discussing open questions about the effects of political endorsements and describing how ongoing research addresses them.

Interest Groups and Elections

2019 ◽  
pp. 339-357
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Organizational Forms ◽  
Super Pacs ◽  
New Organizational Forms ◽  
Winner Take All ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Take All

The relationships between interest groups, political parties, and elections have always been dynamic, but in recent years change has accelerated in ways that have favored some interests over others. This chapter considers these developments as the result of a variety of factors, the most critical of which are the growth of polarization, a new legal landscape for campaign finance, and new organizational forms. The chapter goes on to suggest, that as bipartisanship has ebbed, elections have become winner-take-all affairs and interest groups are pushed to choose sides. The chapter further suggests that the rise of super PACs is especially notable as wealthy individuals have become increasingly important, single sources of campaign money, supplanting in part traditional interest groups, especially conventional PACs. It concludes that even as sums spent by super PACs and other interest groups have skyrocketed, the impact of their direct spending on persuading voters remains uncertain.

scholarly journals The birth of minority legislation in the newly independent Finland and Estonia (1918–1920): a comparative analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
Kari Alenius
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Third ◽  
International Trends ◽  
The Relationship

This article analyzes how ethnic minorities were taken into account in the Finnish and Estonian constitutions, and why account was taken precisely in a certain way. At the same time, it approaches what kinds of views were presented by different political parties and interest groups, what kind of debate was being held in Parliament and how the matter was dealt with in the leading media. The outcome of the process in both countries was that exceptionally broad linguistic and cultural rights were given to minorities if the situation was compared with the rest of Europe. There were several factors behind the process. One factor was the relationship between ethnic groups in Finland and Estonia in the historical perspective. Another factor was each country's internal debate on what kind of social order in general was to be built. The third factor was how the politics in Finland and Estonia was influenced by international trends and theories about how ethnic minorities should have been treated.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document