What is the relationship between interest groups and presidential policy making? Are the issues interest groups are working on more or less likely to receive presidential attention and action and, conversely, are the issues presidents are working on more or less likely to receive interest group attention and action? In terms of presidential speeches during the Obama administration, the president was significantly more likely to speak out on issues where he agreed with interest groups’ stated positions. The few cases in which the president publicly disagreed with the interest group position will be analyzed as well. An exploratory case study of presidential-interest group relations during the Obama administration, combining quantitative analysis across a broad universe of policy issues combined with an in-depth qualitative analysis of two key Obama administration agenda priorities – one with higher interest group and media attention (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and one with less interest group and media attention (expansion of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) Standards) – will be employed to illustrate how this relationship played out in the policymaking space. This project serves as descriptive analysis of the presidential-interest group relationship during a specific moment in time, with the hopes of inspiring future projects that will investigate this relationship across broader time periods.
Nicole M. Bizzoco-Knight (Thu,) studied this question.