Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1982. / Vita. Bibliography: leaaves 249-256.

Existing interest group theory describes legislative decision-making as a communication process whereby interest groups research information on issues, combine this information with constituent opinions, and present the resulting information to legislators. Legislators then use this information in developing legislation. The original source of information used by lobbyists greatly impacts the interest group’s ability to effectively represent its policy objectives in the decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate sources of information utilized by selected California agricultural interest groups. This study determined common sources used among selected California agricultural interest groups, how and why groups choose their sources, the role of trust in information source selection, and what purposes interest groups have for using the information. Data from this study suggest lobbyists of California agricultural interest groups are primarily researching for lobbying purposes. Lobbyists acknowledged the importance of research in their lobbying work. Specifically, two main themes developed from the interviewees’ responses: 1) lobbyists gather the political and technical information needed to thoroughly understand an issue before lobbying on it, and 2) lobbyists find the appropriate information to support their organization’s policy objectives. The purpose of their research and the type of information needed drive how lobbyists research an issue and what information sources they utilize. Lobbyists rely on their previous experiences to determine which sources will provide them with the necessary information. Data from this study suggest four main factors that impact which information sources lobbyists choose to utilize: 1) what information is needed, 2) who their contacts and personal relationships are with, 3) how much they trust potential sources, and 4) other characteristics of the sources such as accessibility, quality and accuracy, brevity and readability, experience of source, current information, scientifically-based, sincere, and/or a source that provides needed pictures or graphics.

Policy-minded legislatures have a number of tools to implement policy at their disposal. On the one hand, they can write specific legislation and ensure that their policy wishes are accurately carried out. On the other hand, legislatures can delegate this authority to administrative agencies, and, with broad authority, allow them to formulate policy in a manner consistent with the preferences of the agency. This "delegation game" has received significant scholarly attention, and scholars have noted that the political context within which legislatures make this decision affects whether or not delegation will occur. Scholars have also examined the role that interest groups play in this game, yet studies at the interest group level are few in number. Interest groups are strategic actors that formulate strategies of lobbying in a manner that maximizes their potential influence per their resources. As such, interest groups should formulate lobbying strategies that take into consideration the delegation game that legislatures play when formulating policy. In this paper, I develop a game-theoretic model of legislative delegation and examine interest group lobbying strategies within that context. The equilibria from the game that I present: (1) Confirm previous studies of legislative delegation that argue legislatures delegate in a strategic manner given differing political conditions and (2) Suggests that indeed interest groups are strategic actors who develop lobbying strategies based on the expected actions of the legislature.

Existing interest group theory describes legislative decision-making as a communication process whereby interest groups research information on issues, combine this information with constituent opinions, and present the resulting information to legislators. Legislators then use this information in developing legislation. The original source of information used by lobbyists greatly impacts the interest group’s ability to effectively represent its policy objectives in the decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate sources of information utilized by selected California agricultural interest groups. This study determined common sources used among selected California agricultural interest groups, how and why groups choose their sources, the role of trust in information source selection, and what purposes interest groups have for using the information. Data from this study suggest lobbyists of California agricultural interest groups are primarily researching for lobbying purposes. Lobbyists acknowledged the importance of research in their lobbying work. Specifically, two main themes developed from the interviewees’ responses: 1) lobbyists gather the political and technical information needed to thoroughly understand an issue before lobbying on it, and 2) lobbyists find the appropriate information to support their organization’s policy objectives. The purpose of their research and the type of information needed drive how lobbyists research an issue and what information sources they utilize. Lobbyists rely on their previous experiences to determine which sources will provide them with the necessary information. Data from this study suggest four main factors that impact which information sources lobbyists choose to utilize: 1) what information is needed, 2) who their contacts and personal relationships are with, 3) how much they trust potential sources, and 4) other characteristics of the sources such as accessibility, quality and accuracy, brevity and readability, experience of source, current information, scientifically-based, sincere, and/or a source that provides needed pictures or graphics.

With the growth of the internet and other media of communication, locating information on the topic of interest is less a problem of finding related documents than determining which particular documents are valuable. Often, the desired information is obscured within a long list of resources. Users become inundated with so much information that the task of sifting through it takes the majority of time on a given information task. Users look at multiple documents at once to find answers to their questions, and switch between documents to get the “complete” picture. New systems are needed that help users cull through related documents to gain the information they need. As a part of the Document Triage Project, we have been looking at ways to help users in sifting through information. The Document Triage Project is developing tools to recognize, represent, communicate, and visualize user interest across applications. The topic of this thesis is recognizing user interest and providing an infrastructure to represent that interest so that it can be shared across the software applications involved in triage. Based on this inferred interest, applications can help users in their triage task by providing visualizations or other functionality. The applications could involve one or many reading interfaces (e.g., a browser, or an editor), an information organizing system (e.g., Visual Knowledge Builder) and search interfaces (the application providing the document collection; e.g., a search engine). To recognize user interest, data is gathered from the user’s reading, navigational and interpretive activities. Algorithms based on statistical models and qualitative analyses of user behavior in triage are used to infer interest. A light-weight infrastructure called Interest Profile Manager has been developed for the representation of interest values and the corresponding metadata. Interest Profile Manager also provides text processing capability, interest analysis functionality, sharing of data across applications and event propagation.

The public interest is the highest standard for bureaucratic action in American government. While the importance of this standard ebbs and flows in the literature, the eminence of it remains unquestioned as the North Star for the American ship of state. As the highest standard in American politics and policy, this standard must be formed democratically. In this dissertation, I examine the formation of the public interest standard through the lens of citizen-bureaucratic communication, using the theory of communicative action advanced by the contemporary German social and political philosopher, Jürgen Habermas. I support the use of such a theoretical framework in America by examining the importance of communication for the American pragmatist philosopher, John Dewey. I examine the ramifications of communication in the American democratic state as foundational for the formation and continued expression of the public interest throughout the institution of the American executive branch.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Florida, 2006. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 98 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Guo li Taiwan da xue, 1972. / Reproduced from typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-149).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1999. Schulich School of Business. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ43429.

Elections are one way in which interest groups seek to advance their policy goals. Policy studies and election studies have approached this issue differently, leaving unanswered questions about the relationship between interest group policy goals and electoral involvement. This report helps to fill the gaps by applying conventional wisdom to the unstudied question of interest group support for primary challengers. Its findings amend the conventional wisdom in a few key ways. While legislative access does have a negative effect on challenger support, a group-specific measure of access rather than a type-based inference shows the effect to extend beyond groups traditionally thought of as access-seekers. Further, interest in legislative access does not preclude targeted support for challengers by these groups. This suggests that groups may be more sensitive to political circumstances and willing to achieve policy goals through elections than previously thought. / text