During the 2008 election season, politicians from both sides of the aisle promised to rid government of lobbyists undue influence. For the authors of Lobbying and Policy Change, the most extensive study ever done on the topic, these promises ring hollow not because politicians fail to keep them but because lobbies are far less influential than political rhetoric suggests.
Based on a comprehensive examination of ninety-eight issues, this volume demonstrates that sixty percent of recent lobbying campaigns failed to change policy despite millions of dollars spent trying. Why? The...