Jesse Crosson Speaks on Party Competition, Interest Group Strategy, and the Polarization of American Pluralism

Jesse Crosson, Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University, will give a talk with the title “Taking Sides: Party Competition, Interest Group Strategy, and the Polarization of American Pluralism.”

The talk will take place on February 11, 2026, from 4-5:30pm in the GLC Multipurpose Room (Graduate Life Center).

The talk is tailored to appeal to both faculty and students, with plenty of time for discussion and interaction with the guest speaker. The talk will be followed by a public reception. You are cordially invited to attend.

Here is the abstract of the talk: The traditional depiction of American organized interest groups casts them as “special interests”—that is, parochial-but-pragmatic pursuers of narrow policy agendas. Special interests introduce challenges to American democracy–corruption, unequal representation, and difficult-to-penetrate issue networks–as well as key assets like expertise on policy issues, constituencies that transcend geographic boundaries, and the pragmatism necessary to build cross-partisan coalitions within our Madisonian system. Thus, groups have historically occupied a unique role in American democracy, dating back to the Founding and extending to present-day. Mid-Century reformers, however, fixated on the corrupting dangers of organized interests, advocating for stronger, more disciplined parties that would supplant narrow interest.

In this book, we argue that such reformers got their way – and that the result has created unintended consequences for American governance. While most interest groups in the United States still describe themselves as non-partisan, we argue that they have, in practice, aligned themselves with one of the two major political parties. Leveraging a massive original dataset on interest group positions on congressional legislation, 1973 to 2021, we document how modern hyperpartisanship has transformed interest group strategy—and what that means for the structure and quality of democratic representation in Washington and federal policymaking moving forward.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact ppe@nullvt.edu at least ten business days before the event.

(Photo provided by Jesse Crosson – used with permission)