Interest Groups in the Postpartisan Era: The Political Machine of the AFL-CIO
1979; Oxford University Press; Volume: 94; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2150159
ISSN1538-165X
Autores Tópico(s)Labor Movements and Unions
ResumoWhen George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, in late 1973 called for the election of a veto-proof Congress, he drew public attention to the impressive political potential of labor forces in national politics.1 Certainly there was little tendency to scoff either by friends or foes. Activity on this scale manifestly embodies large-scale interest group intervention in the political process. Meanwhile accumulating evidence points to the continuing decomposition of the political party system. Perhaps the most authoritative analysis to appear to date concludes by comparing -the evolution of national political processes to the kind of factionalism found by V.O. Key years ago in his analysis of the oneparty South. And although the authors found today's electorate to be more sophisticated and issue-oriented than the earlier Southern electorate, they did project a of issue-based factions in a post partisan era.2 The politics of an issue-based factionalism may be complex and uncertain but it surely suggests the value of interest'group analysis, at least as a supplement to other forms of analysis.3 The federation's large-scale political operations, a rather remarkable extension of interest group activity, are the focus of this study.
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