Living in the Moment: Lags, Leads, and the Link Between Legislative Agendas and Interest Advocacy*

Abstract

Objectives. Based on sharply divergent interpretations about the nature of the politics of organized interests, three competing perspectives imply that organized interests variously lead, lag, or are contemporaneous with legislative agendas.Methods. We contribute to this debate by presenting data using a short‐term timeframe to assess the sequence of the relationship between legislative agendas and lobbying activity; we examine the lags and leads in the relationship between legislative agendas in 1995, 1997, and 1999 and the density of state lobbying communities in 1997 using Gray and Lowery's (1996) energy, stability, area (ESA) model of interest system density.Results. The analysis provides little support for the lagging and leading hypotheses and strong support for the contemporaneous hypothesis.Conclusions. Although this analysis will not end all debates over the sequential relationship between legislative agendas and lobbying activity, it suggests that legislative agenda and interest system density are largely governed by within‐session dynamics.