Venue Shopping: Domestic Interests in Global Politics

The role domestic organized interest groups play in political affairs has drastically changed in a very short time period, yet the subject has been basically ignored by academia. This study investigates the motivation, strategies, and tactics of domestic organizations that seek lobbying targets outside the domestic political arena. Interest groups in the United States and Canada were selected from three distant policy areas: environmental policy, reproductive policy, and agriculture policy.;By investigating the motives, strategies, and tactics domestic organizations use beyond the domestic political environment, this research has added to our knowledge of interest group behavior. Research on the transnational activities of organized interests has added an additional layer of explanation to international relations theory. Specifically, this work builds upon neo-liberal theory by investigating an additional communication channel beyond the state.