This chapter focuses on the attitudes, expectations, and evaluations of interest-group leaders about their interaction with government. In earlier chapters, we focused on the reports of group leaders and independent observers on the structure of group politics and the kinds of political activities engaged in by French groups. This chapter reports on the general attitudes of group leaders toward their interaction with government: why they interact with government, their perceptions of the importance of their autonomy and that of the state, what they see as the advantages and disadvantages of contacts with the state, and so forth. These attitudes will help in understanding why groups act the ways they do. How effective groups leaders believe their actions are in influencing policy decisions and their beliefs about the comparative efficacy of alternative influence wielding strategies are important in explaining the forms of action opted for by various groups.

In addition, group leaders' expectations and evaluations of their interaction with government will help in determining the nature of the overall pattern of group politics. As we saw in chapter 2, there are attitudinal differences associated with each of the four patterns of interest-group/government interaction. These attitudinal variations are of crucial importance in differentiating these alternative models. As an illustration, the protest model is founded on the assumption that a certain political culture prevails among group leaders. The careful examination of attitudes about interest-group politics is important whatever the current structural or behavioral patterns. They can help us to understand why these patterns prevail or the direction of likely changes in interest-group politics.