The Public-Interest Movement and the American Reform Tradition

Abstract

Beginning in the late sixties, a new force emerged in American politics: the public-interest movement. An important part of this movement consisted of a wide variety of law firms, research centers, lobbying groups, membership associations, and community organizations committed to public policies that attempted to reduce the power and privileges of business. By any measure, their impact has been impressive: throughout most of the 1970s, the relationship between regulatory and corporate officials was more strained than at any time since the 1930s. In sharp contrast to the quarter-century following World War II, the most vocal criticisms of government regulation since the late sixties have come from businessmen -not their critics. ' Public-interest activism succeeded in significantly narrowing the boundaries of managerial discretion; many corporate abuses were reduced and those that continue are now less likely to go unchallenged.2 In sum, public-interest groups are to the last decade what the trade-union movement was to the thirties and the muckrakers were to the Progressive era: the driving force behind increased restrictions on corporate prerogatives. At first glance, this political phenomenon appears to represent another example of American interest-group pluralism. Pluralists never argued that self-