ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that both niche interest groups and niche parties can conduct the same transaction. It presents the transaction that can occur between niche organizations and mainstream organizations. The chapter describes how institutions determine the levels of response costs and access costs for each organizational choice. It emphasizes the importance of organizational choice as opposed to ideology in determining levels of policy influence. The chapter explores a formal signaling model of organizational choice, bringing together all the insights into predictions about how to optimally organize for policy influence. It examines the combined effects of electoral rules, corporatism, and decentralization. The chapter also argues that decentralization will decrease the access costs and response costs associated with niche parties but will also reduce the access costs and response costs associated with niche interest groups.
