ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the personal backgrounds of interest representatives and officials to determine whether the people in one policy domain differ from those with other policy concerns. It also examines the extent to which partisanship is a significant factor in differentiating interest group representatives from government officials or distinguishing one policy domain from another. The chapter assesses the degree to which these policy activists specialize in a single domain or spread their energies across several areas. It explores the extent of embeddedness in the Washington community. The chapter discusses some judgments regarding the shape of policy domain relationships and the validity of the notions of triangle and network. The triangle metaphor clearly implies that policy advocates, including both government officials and private groups, will tend to concentrate their efforts on a relatively small fraction of the total range of public policy issues.
