Vested Interests, Venue Shopping, and Policy Stability: The Long Road to Improving Air Quality in Oregon's Willamette Valley
Ley, Aaron J. "Vested Interests, Venue Shopping, and Policy Stability: The Long Road to Improving Air Quality in Oregon's Willamette Valley." Review of Policy Research, Forthcoming
39 Pages Posted: 16 Apr 2016
Date Written: April 14, 2016
Abstract
A lot of scholarly attention has focused on why groups choose to pursue their policy goals in one venue over another. This manuscript adds to the literature by testing a new theory of venue shopping, the Adaptive Venue Shopping Framework. This manuscript finds empirical support that groups choose venues by strategically assessing the institutional context which involves three primary elements: the group's mix of resources, their opponent's resource strengths, and the degree of venue accessibility, which is a combination of opponents degree of control over a venue and a venue's image amiability or receptivity. In addition to confirming these findings, this case study links the literature on venue shopping with recent scholarship about "vested interests" by demonstrating how a powerful agricultural group came to dominate in a legislative venue, how it protected its policy victories from reversal, and how it kept policymaking from shifting into alternative venues, thus leading to long-term policy stability. Furthermore, it demonstrates how newly emerged groups can achieve policy success against stronger opponents by threatening to seek their policy goals in alternative institutions.
Keywords: Venue Shopping, Policy Change, Policy Stability
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