THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION AND SYMBOLISM IN INTEREST GROUP COMPETITION- THE CASE OF THE SISKIYOU-NATIONAL-FOREST, 1983-1992

Traditionally, interest group competition has been analyzed in terms o f the quantifiable resources opposing groups can muster in a given pol icy struggle. Others have argued that less quantifiable, less easily m easured communicative variables are just as important, if not more so. This study proposes that communication and the effective use of symbo ls are indeed crucial and often overlooked aspects of the political co mpetition between interest groups. Based on Cobb and Elder's model of communicative influences on issue expansion, this study analyzes a hig hly polarized policy conflict to illustrate the significant role that symbolism and communication play in determining the nature and outcome of interest group competition. The case involves the decade-long stru ggle over the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, specificall y, the local battle over southwestern Oregon's Siskiyou National Fores t. The study explores the major efforts made by the environmentalists and the timber interests to expand the issues on their terms and conta in their opponent's efforts. They did this by manipulating perceptions of the issues' breadth, significance, complexity, and emotional appea l, and their own and their opponent's legitimacy. These efforts played a central role as to how interest groups competed and articulated the ir demands.