University Press of Kansas
Revolving Door Lobbying: Public Service, Private Influence, and the Unequal Representation of Interests
Key Metrics
- Timothy M Lapira
- University Press of Kansas
- Hardcover
- 9780700624508
- 9.3 X 6.3 X 1 inches
- 1.2 pounds
- Political Science > Political Process - Political Advocacy
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Drawing on extensive new data on lobbyists' biographies and interviews with dozens of experts, authors Timothy M. LaPira and Herschel F. Thomas establish the facts of the revolving door phenomenon--facts that suggest that, contrary to widespread assumptions about insider access, special interests hire these lobbyists as political insurance against an increasingly dysfunctional, unpredictable government. With their insider experience, revolving door lobbyists offer insight into the political process, irrespective of their connections to current policymakers. What they provide to their clients is useful and marketable political risk-reduction. Exploring this claim, LaPira and Thomas present a systematic analysis of who revolving door lobbyists are, how they differ from other lobbyists, what interests they represent, and how they seek to influence public policy.
The first book to marshal comprehensive evidence of revolving door lobbying, LaPira and Thomas revise the notion that lobbyists are inherently and institutionally corrupt. Rather, the authors draw a complex and sobering picture of the revolving door as a consequence of the eroding capacity of government to solve the public's problems.
Author Bio
Timothy M. LaPira, PhD, is professor of political science at James Madison University in Virginia and faculty affiliate at the Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia. His expertise is on Congress, interest groups, and lobbying. His books include Revolving Door Lobbying: Public Service, Private Influence, and the Unequal Representation of Interests (University Press of Kansas, 2017) and Congress Overwhelmed: The Decline of Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform (University of Chicago Press, 2020).
His research has been funded by The National Science Foundation, Sunlight Foundation, Democracy Fund, Hewlett Foundation, the American Political Science Association, Data for Progress, Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, and the Dirksen Congressional Center.
He has written more than twenty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and serves on the editorial boards for the academic journals Legislative Studies Quarterly and Interest Groups & Advocacy. He previously worked on Capitol Hill as the American Political Science Association Public Service Fellow at the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress and as a legislative assistant to a member of Congress in the 1990s. LaPira was also a researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics, where he was responsible for developing the Lobbying and Revolving Door databases on OpenSecrets.org.
Source: James Madison University
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