BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN HEALTH-CARE POLICY REFORM - FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO COLLECTIVE ACTION WITHIN THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY

This paper examines business political activity by exploring those cor porate characteristics that contribute to intercorporate coalition for mation. Using differences of interest in relation to health care profi tability to illustrate the difficulties inherent in corporate collecti ve action, this study examines the role of corporate self-interest in political behavior. Distinguishing between narrow individual interest, a broader self-interest that may overlap with the individual interest s of other corporations, and classwide interest, this study addresses the extent to which corporate political activity reflects the narrow s elf-interest of individual firms. It begins by examining membership pa tterns in big business' major lobbying group on health - The Washingto n Business Group on Health (WBGH) - as a vehicle with which to explore the conditions under which business organizes. It continues by tracin g the development of the WBGH as it matured from a spinoff of the Busi ness Roundtable to a mature lobbying group in its own right. Finally, it investigates individual corporate reaction to a proposed change in accounting requirements for health care costs, thus, comparing individ ual behaviors with collective action.