Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens

Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented. A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on…

• SF
  Sage Foundation
• YU
  Yale University
• PU
  Princeton University
• UO
  University of Cambridge
• JJ
  John Jay College of Criminal Justice