Politics of Interest: Interest Groups and Advocacy Coalitions in American Education

While institutions play a key role in shaping the policy process and infl uencing the outcome of that process, many scholars assert that, ultimately, it is people-policy makers, activists, and interest groups-who determine the outcome of political battles over education reform. The infl uence of organized interest groups remains a central theme in the study of the politics of education. Indeed, many prevailing theories of policy making-pluralism, the iron triangle or subsystems perspective, interest group theory, issue networks, policy communities, policy domains, and advocacy coalition frameworks-consider interest groups to be integral to the policy process in the United States.