EDUCATIONAL POLICY / January-March 2001V. DARLEE OPFER Beyond Self-Interest: Educational Interest Groups and Congressional Influence

Most research on interest groups has focused on theoretical perspectives con-cerning why members join these groups. Missing from this work is any connec-tion between theories of organizational maintenance (i.e., how an organiza-tion forms) and research on influence activity (i.e., what an organization does). This article argues that a connection exists between organizational mainte-nance and the participation of their members in the organization’s influence activities. Relying on a two-stage study of educational interest groups and the U.S. Congress, this article maintains that rational choice theories of interest group maintenance cannot account for the presence and perseverance of Washington-based education interest groups. A theory acknowledging levels of ideological commitment may be a more appropriate model for understand-ing educational interest groups at the national level. INTEREST GROUPS are increasingly important to Americans and thus to our legislative process. This commitment to interest groups has led to what Knoke (1986) calls the “advocacy explosion ” and Berry (1984) terms the “lobbying explosion. ” The best available data with regard to the number of interest groups operating in the Washington, D.C. area show a remarkable increase, from 4,000 in 1977 to more than 17,000 in 1999 (Close, 1979-1999). This explosion includes education interest groups, with roughly 76% of these groups coming into existence since 1960 (Schlozman & Tierney