Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1992

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Political Science

Major Professor

David M. Welborn

Abstract

This thesis characterizes the changes that occurred in a policy complex between two periods of time. It describes and compares the 1961 to 1963 health-care policy complex and the 1989 to 1991 health-care policy complex to highlight the changes that occurred in the policy complex of executive, legislative, and interest group participants. A policy complex consists of the actors who participate in a visible and regular way in making public policy in a particular area. I collected the principal data for this thesis from the U.S. Government Manual, the U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings Index 1959-1964, the CIS/Index and the CIS/Abstracts. I identified health-care hearings involving HEW or HHS agencies and recorded the names of the interest groups and other executive agencies that attended these hearings according to committee and subcommittee. This thesis tested the hypothesis that the evidence from a case study of the health-care policy complex would support the theoretical literature concerning the description of national policy complexes. A brief summary of the findings indicates that the numbers of major executive agencies, congressional committees and subcommittees and interest groups increased between studies. Congressional committees and subcommittees heard testimony by officials from a higher proportion of executive agencies, however, the executive agencies represented themselves less frequently at congressional hearings. Coalitions and Staff/Public Interest groups increased the most in proportion to other interest groups, while Professional Membership groups and Think Tanks decreased the most in proportion to other interest groups. The most prolific years of interest group formation occurred from 1964 to 1986 when 250 interest groups formed during this period. A total of 207 interest groups in the later period did not participate in the earlier period, despite being organized before 1963. The implications from executive - legislative findings are two-fold: first, they add empirical support to the literature that suggests policies are becoming increasing fragmented among executive agencies and congressional committees; second, this situation suggests that Congress has fewer opportunities to oversee the operations of executive agencies, and might create a condition of lessening an agency's accountability for its actions. The evidence suggests that the relative influence of an interest group's message decreases since more interest groups are presenting competing points of view to policy decision-makers. Active groups must compete among themselves, and compete with an even larger number of less active groups – all groups trying to influence the policy process in their best interests. Moreover, less active groups have less political influence since they must compete with an unlimited number of other interest groups. These circumstances create a policy complex of reduced influence for all interest groups. Overall, the research conformed the hypothesis that the evidence supports the theoretical literature that policy complex moved from a condition that suggests the possibility of a subgovemment, to a condition suggesting the possibility of an issue network overlaying a number of subgovemments.

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