Question

Why do insider strategies work better for some groups and outsider strategies work better for others?

Answer 1

Interest groups are organized groups of people each one looking to achieve a particular public goal;

In the current public economy and political system, four main types of such groups can be recognized: business, labor, agricultural groups and professional associations.

Both, interest groups and political parties play an important role in the socioeconomic and political system.

The importance of political parties resides in the ability to identify issues related to a particular group and apply actions and solutions to those issues.

Thereby, the groups can raise money to help candidates that share their beliefs.

Thus, the insider/outsider typology is mainly used to identify the status of each group, differentiate tactics and design strategies related to a particular group in policy development; so, a particular style of policy making describes the influence and potential status of the group in the political system.

Therefore, certain strategies will naturally be suitable for a particular group and not other, essentially because it has been especially design for that specific group.

As an example, an insider strategy could be a relying on the competencies of a company to lead change and innovation contrary to external variables like market, competition or customer choices.

And as an example of outsider strategies: activities designed to influence elected officials, with ominous actions to impose costs on them if they don't comply. Such actions may include marches, campaign contributions to adversaries, or electoral mobilizations.

The efficiency of each strategy is highly correlated with the type of group.