The Grass Roots Connection: Environmental Activists and Senate Roll Calls

Abstract

Interest groups resort to grass roots lobbying tactics with increasing frequency, but they are unsure when and how such a strategy affects congressional decision making. In analyzing citizen activists who belong to environmental organizations and their influence on Senate roll calls, this paper defines the limits and possibilities of such grass roots pressure. In general, the statistical results indicate that grass roots mobilization has a modest value as a lobbying tool, but they also suggest that certain issues, state conditions, and characteristics of the group members themselves shape the receptivity of senators to organized constituent opinion.