How National Party and Interest Group Patterns Affected the Efficacy and Viability of Conveyers

Abstract

The Conveyer organizations whose operations form the contemporary focus of our study were established at different times in the course of an eight-year period. In Norway Liberyas was founded in 1947, the German Förderbände were established in 1952, while Keizai Saiken Kondankai was founded in Japan in 1955. In line with the criteria which distinguish Conveyer organizations in our definition, all three had in common the facts that national business associations took the lead in their establishment and that their major function was that of raising political contributions from businessmen for channelling and distribution among a number of political parties. But beyond this the three organizations were by no means shaped from a common mold. Rather, they exhibited significant differences in regard to structure, openness of operations and relationship to peak business associations, as well as to the priority assigned to their various goals.