Writing for undergraduate students and scholars, Godwin (political science, U. of North Carolina Charlotte) et al. argue that paying attention to rulemaking institutions and the public provision of private goods changes the standard picture of lobbying and the policy making process. They identify when, where, and how special interests influence policy making and the implications for American democracy, considering what goals interest organizations seek, what strategies they use, when different types of interest organizations are most successful in the policy process, and what factors influence their success or failure. They examine what interest organizations actually seek from policy makers, showing how lobbying is not just a struggle among competing interests over highly collective goods; emphasize the regulatory process to reflect the importance of regulatory agencies in policy making; connect theory to practice; and present a formal model (the exchange model) reflecting the process. The book is also organized around a neopluralism approach and uses eight case studies for illustration and datasets of interviews with lobbyists, archival data, documents, and other data to compare competing explanations of lobbying influence and to test the model. CQ Press is an imprint of SAGE Publications. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)