Voting paradoxes and interest groups

This paper offers the conjecture that interest groups act where there are c ycling majorities or other aggregation anomalies. The claim is that instabi lity attracts political activity. This simple conjecture suggests a link be tween voting paradoxes, or puzzles of aggregation, and questions about why some interest groups succeed while others do not. Interest groups are seen as exploiting the opportunities offered by aggregation anomalies either by influencing procedure or by bargaining their way into successful coalitions . The link between instability and interest-group activity also bears on su ch normative questions as whether interest-group activity is likely to have disparate corrupting influences on legislative or judicial or direct (popu lar) decision making.