A Medium article on the 30th anniversary of the release of a landmark book about harnessing the power of U.S. interest groups included the recollections of Public Policy Professor Mark Peterson. “Mobilizing Interest Groups in America: Patrons, Professions, and Social Movements” was published in 1991, the year after its author, Jack L. Walker Jr., died in a car crash. Peterson, who worked with Walker as a Ph.D. student and faculty member at Harvard University’s department of government, was part of a team of collaborators who worked to complete the unfinished manuscript. The Medium piece focused on academic legacies and dedication to scholarship in the face of unexpected loss. Working with Walker “granted me the best sense of how to do effective political science at that particular time,” Peterson recalled. “Moreover, he engaged me, and the others, in ways that went far beyond the project itself — in discussions of the discipline, the nature of academic administration, the character of a public university, balancing research and family, [and] teaching during challenging political times.”
Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, Health Policy and Management, and Law; Senior Fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
A specialist on American national institutions, much of Professor Peterson’s scholarship focuses on the Presidency, Congress, interest groups, and public...
