ABSTRACT
Researchers equate groups with organized interests and see them as relatively weak participants in the governmental process. Institutions, however, include more than those of the formal governmental system; the political economy is the appropriate context for considering group-institution interactions. Group political behavior emanates from an ongoing process of modernization, a process marked by heightening social differentiation and a proliferation of groups that reflect increasing role specialization in both economy and society. Thus Jack Walker's emphasis on the contingent character of American politics and his dismissal of the notion that there is a preset pattern of development are needed correctives to David Truman's classic work. Walker's approach emphasizes the mobilization of groups and suggests that political struggle in America is a question of the capacity of the nonprofit and services sector to wield countervailing power against corporate business. Truman's pluralism is society-centered in the sense that group activity stems from its position in a complex socioeconomic order.
