The study was funded by the Conseil des Arts du Canada. It was conducted by Robert Presthus, a member of the Political Science Department at York University.
It consists of personal interviews of legislators, senior civil servants, and executives of interest groups.
The object of this research project was to study the role of interest groups in Canada and the United States. Canadian legislators, civil servants, and interest groups in Ottawa, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec as well as their American counterparts in Washington state, Michigan, Washington D.C., and Louisiana were interviewed. Interest groups represented include labour unions, business organizations, agricultural, professional, and municipal organizations, and industry and commerce.
Legislators variables include: year of birth; place of birth; economic activity in home constituency; year first elected; committees to which R belongs; held cabinet or party position; father's occupation, education; occupation, education; field of graduate degrees; political party affiliation; professional, fraternal, social organization memberships; trust in lobbyists; contact with interest group representatives; interest group influence on constituency; social or economic representation of interest group reps versus geographical representation of legislators; sources of information about political issues; influence of interest groups on public policy; pressure tactics; interest group support of legislators' election campaigns; sanctions used by interest groups against legislators; social class; identification of four most powerful interest groups; influence of occupational groups; interest group tactics; influence experienced by R; ranking of helpfulness of services provided by interest groups, of types of communication with lobbyists; R's opinion on interest groups; perception of public's feelings about interest groups; ranking of sources of information about political issues; general opinions about politics and human nature.
Civil servants variables include: demographic variables as above; principal interest groups with which Department interacts; relations of interest groups with Department; case study, including groups involved, how group made Department aware of interest, outcome, major issues, tactics used, effectiveness, legitimacy of group's position; influence o interest groups on Departmental policy making; sanctions levied by interest groups on against senior civil servants; role of interest groups in government; ensuring hearing of unorganized interest groups; creation of interest groups by government to implement policy or program; tactics of interest groups; perceived public feeling towards interest groups; sources of influence on Department; influence of occupational groups; three most influential interest groups; contribution of interest groups to public interest; political system elements most influenced by interest groups; methods used by lobbyists to gain access to internal deliberations; personal contact with interest group reps; services provided by lobbyists and extent of influence; general opinion on interest groups; general opinion on politics and human nature.
Interest group variables include: demographic data as above; position in organization, and length of time held; and length of time with organization; political party preference; social class; details of organization, including year of founding, annual budget, employees, dues-paying members. membership fee, type of organization, other sources of revenue, services provided for members, purpose of organization; membership identification with goals of org; org activity in integration of individuals into society; encounters with opposing interest groups; personal knowledge of legislators; has org used lobbyists; perceived opinion of legitimacy of influencing legislators; legislators as competitors in shaping government policy; four most powerful interest groups; tension between interest group rep and those represented; main policy areas which concern org; case study of involvement in an issue, including objectives, methods used, public officials enlisted, outcome, government bodies on which efforts were focused; main org activities in terms of budgetary expenditure; most important org functions; personal goals as org executive; main reasons for members belonging to org; effectiveness of methods used to achieve goals; methods to approach a legislator; services provided to legislators, civil servants; degree of personal influence on legislators, civil servants; perceived public feeling toward interest groups; trust in legislators; personal contact with legislators, civil servants; general statements about interest groups; general opinion on politics and human nature.
The codebook for this dataset is available through the UBC Library catalogue, with call number JL148.5 .P747 1972.
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