Page 30 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

DEMAND FOR DURABLE AND NON-DURABLE POLITICAL GOODS

State-focused 527 Groups

According to the Center of Responsive Politics, 527 Groups can be
categorized as state-focused or federal-level. To keep our sample

homogenous, in this study we focus solely on 37 different state-focused
2
groups in three election cycles. Table 1 lists these groups. These advocacy
groups can be divided into three categories based on their type, namely
3
independent, political party affiliated, and union affiliated. The same groups
can also be classified as conservative, liberal, or unknown according to their

4
ideologies.
As Table 2 summarizes 73 percent of these groups appear during one

election cycle only. This observation is in line with the main reason why these

groups exist, namely to influence voters on a specific ballot issues in a particular
election and frequently specific to a particular state. As this table shows, although

independent groups constitute 53 percent of the sample, 85 percent of the groups which

were active in one election cycle are independents. Similarly, 48 percent of the groups
which are active in three election cycles are affiliated with political parties, i.e.,

Democratic or Republican parties. These observations are also in line with the main
reason why party-type advocacy groups exist. Although they may have partisan interest

in many of the referenda issues on a ballot in a given election cycle at a particular state,
their primary agenda is to promote continuing party control of state legislatures and

executive positions.

Table 2 also allows us to make an observation about the ideological
composition of these groups: First, most of these groups, i.e., 63 percent are

liberal. Second, 82 percent of the groups that were active throughout three

2
We downloaded the information from the web page of the Center for Responsive Politics,
th
www.opensecrets.org on January 15 , 2009.
3
A group not affiliated with a labor union and neither Republican nor Democrat in its name
is classified as independent.
4
The ideology classifications come from the Center for Responsive Politics. For instance,
according to this classification, Labor union and Democratic Party affiliated groups are
liberal, Republican Party affiliated groups are conservative.
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