PUBLIC-INTEREST GROUPS IN FRANCE AND THE UNITED-STATES

This article compares the strength, history, and characteristics of pu blic interest groups in the United States and France. French and Ameri can public interest groups differ dramatically in their resources, pop ular support, and in their relations with state agencies. French group s, dependent on a more powerful central state bureaucracy, are often a ble to achieve their goals by having them adopted by state elites. Ame rican organizations, faced with a more diffuse public sector, seek bro ader access and use a greater diversity of means of influence. They ar e often less influential, but paradoxically are stronger organizationa lly because they ave forced to be independent from the state. The diff ering relations with the state explain the different tactics and organ izational maintenance strategies pursued by public interest groups in the two countries. Tight links bind the development of a nation's inte rest-group system with that of its constitutional structures. An expla nation of a national interest-group system must include consideration of the institutional context within which it operates.