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Lobbying America tells the story of the political mobilization of American business in the 1970's and 1980's. Benjamin Waterhouse traces the rise and ultimate fragmentation of a broad-based effort to unify the business community and promote a fiscally conservative, antiregulatory, and market-oriented policy agenda to Congress and the country at large. Arguing that business's political involvement was historically distinctive during this period, Waterhouse illustrates the changing power and goals of America's top corporate leaders. Examining the rise of the Business Roundtable and the revitalization of older business associations such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Waterhouse takes readers inside the mind-set of the powerful CEO's who responded to the crises of inflation, recession, and declining industrial productivity by organizing an effective and disciplined lobbying force. By the mid-1970s, that coalition transformed the economic power of the capitalist class into a broad-reaching political movement with real policy consequences. Ironically, the cohesion that characterized organized business failed to survive the ascent of conservative politics during the 1980's, and many of the coalition's top goals on regulatory and fiscal policies remained unfulfilled. The industrial CEOs who fancied themselves the "voice of business" found themselves one voice among many vying for influence in an increasingly turbulent and unsettled economic landscape. Complicating assumptions that wealthy business leaders naturally get their way in Washington, Lobbying America shows how economic and political powers interact in the American democratic system.

Business and politics --- Corporations --- Lobbying --- Political action committees --- Pressure groups --- History --- Political activity --- American big business. --- American business leaders. --- American business. --- American democracy. --- American political culture. --- Arch Booth. --- Business Roundtable. --- Carter administration. --- Chrysler bailout. --- Cold War. --- Consumer Protection Agency. --- Democrats. --- John Connally. --- National Association of Manufacturers. --- New Deal. --- Progressive period. --- Ralph Nader. --- Reagan administration. --- Republicans. --- U.S. Chamber of Commerce. --- U.S. Congress. --- antistatists. --- business community. --- business leaders. --- business lobbying. --- business theorists. --- business. --- chief executive officers. --- class-oriented battles. --- conservative activists. --- consumer perspective. --- consumer protection. --- consumerism. --- corporate lobbying. --- crisis of confidence. --- economic actors. --- economic crisis. --- economic power. --- employment equality. --- federal budget. --- finance. --- free market. --- global capitalism. --- global outsourcing. --- high finance. --- industrial economy. --- industrial lobbyists. --- industrial manufacturing. --- industrialists. --- inflation. --- legal construct. --- liberal consensus. --- liberalism. --- lobbying firms. --- lobbying operation. --- modern corporation. --- neoliberal doctrine. --- neoliberal political culture. --- neoliberalism. --- organized labor. --- pan-business lobbying. --- party politics. --- policymaking. --- political mobilization. --- political power. --- politics. --- power structure. --- price instability. --- productivity growth. --- progressive politics. --- public interest liberalism. --- regulatory apparatus. --- small-government conservatives. --- stagflation. --- tax cuts. --- taxation. --- unionization. --- wage-price controls. --- workplace regulations.