Abstract The common agency model is among the most productive economic frameworks of recent times, generating important results in the analysis of political influence, industrial organization and public goods provision. This paper presents a survey of the applications of the common agency model to issues of political influence, examining the applications and their results. It also discusses a number of the weaknesses of this literature, weaknesses that open up important avenues of further research in the directions of interest group formation, the nature of lobbying, the political system, behavioural demands and empirical analysis.