Political Economy Reasons for Government Inertia: The Role of Interest Groups in the Case of Access to Medicines

The reluctant reaction of western governments to the AIDS crisis in
developing countries is only one example for policy areas where we
observe a lack of political action despite a public interest in
policy change. The reasons for that lie in the two-stage structure
of the political decision-making process: Interest groups influence
both the policy choice and the subsequent decision on the level of
policy implementation. The lobbies' interest in reform and the
issue-specific chance for compromise determine the policy choice.
The interest groups' failure to agree on political strategies
creates reduced incentives to support policy implementation.