Highly Effective Human Services Interest Groups

Based on information collected from Washington, D.C.-based interest groups active in influencing social welfare policy, I have identified seven tactics that highly effective groups use more than least effective groups. Highly effective groups work more often to develop consensus among experts, pursue issues in court, aid the election of particular candidates, participate in public hearings, bring current regulations to executive branch attention, take changes to proposed regulations to the issuing agency and offer drafts of regulations prior to publication in The Federal Register. These results, by themselves and in conjunction with other research efforts, indicate more effective lobbying efforts and more empirically grounded policy practice by all social workers.