Abstract
Scholars of policy networks consistently find that agreement on policy explains network ties, but inconsistent results on the importance of strategic considerations, such as the influence of potential partners. We use original data on communications between bureaucrats and lobbyists on pending Medicaid legislation to distinguish network ties (contacts) from bureaucrats’ use of those ties to attempt to advance their policy goals (requests for lobbying help). We find that policy agreement explains both the strength of network ties and bureaucrats’ requests for advocacy from their partners, but that interest group influence and unified partisan control of government explain only the latter.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
