Some interest groups represent a broad set of interests, while others focus on only a single issue. Some interests are organizations, like businesses, corporations, or governments, which register to lobby, typically to obtain some benefit from the legislature. Other interest groups consist of dues-paying members who join a group, usually voluntarily. Some organizations band together, often joining trade associations that represent their industry or field. Interest groups represent either the public interest or private interests. Private interests often lobby government for particularized benefits, which are narrowly distributed. These benefits usually accrue to wealthier members of society. Public interests, on the other hand, try to represent a broad segment of society or even all persons.
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Terms in this set (46)
Interest Group
Groups of citizens who sharea common interest - a political opinion, religious or ideological belife, a social goal, or an economic characteristic - and try to influence public policy to benefit themselves.
- citizens most often join groups to advnace their personal economic
well-being, to get their voices heard as part of a larger group's efforts on an issue, or to meet like-minded citizens who share their views.
- prevent power
Right of association
Def: Right to freely associate with others and form groups, as protected by the 1st Amendment.
- Framers believed this opportunity was a fundamental right that Gov. cannot legitimately take away. At the same time, they were
fearful, that factions might divide the young nation and could have the same divisive or polarizing effect in a democracy.
- Bill of Rights protects rights of association and petition because they are essential for citizens to be able to hold their government accountable, ensure the responsiveness of elected officials, and participate equally in self-government.
Factions
Defined by Madison as any group that places its own interests above the aggregate interests of society
The right of petition
Right to ask the government for assistance iwth a problem or to express opposition to a government policy, as protected by the 1st Amendment.
Lobbying
Act of trying to persuade elected officials to adopt a specific policy change or maintain
the status quo
- Interest groups lobby the legislative, executive, and even judicial branches of goernment at the state and federal levels.
- Lobbyist try to influence the executive branch by meeting personally with key bureaucrats and policy makers. Lobbying of judicial branch takes the form of lawsuits against government policies that interest groups see as fundamentally unconstitutional or that go against the original intent of the law.
History of Interest Groups
find in pages 256-257
unions
Interest groups of individuals who share a common type of employment and seek better wages and working conditions through collective bargaining with employers.
Grassroots movement
Group that forms in response to an economic or political event but does not focus on only one issue.
Economic Interest Groups
Group formed to advance the economic status of its members.
- Trade and Professional Associations
- Corporations
- Unions
Trade and Professional Assocations
focus on particular businesses or industries and make up a subcategory of economic interest groups.
Trade associations form because business owners believe that they wll have more influence on the policy process collectively than they would individually.
Professional Associations formed by individuals who share similar jobs.
- frequently responsible for setting guidelines for professional conduct (from business practices to personal ethics) and fro collectively representing the members in the policy process.
Corporations
try to influence policy on their own as well as by joining trade assocations comprising businesses with similar goals.
Unions
Aims to protect workers through safer working conditions and better wages. They are traditionally organized as local chapters that are part of a national organization representing workers in specific fields and industries.
- strength comes from ability to call or
threaten strikes and to bargain collectively with employers over wages and working conditions.
- Biggest threat: loss of jobs in industries they represent.
Ideological Interest Groups
Groups that form among citizens with the same beliefs about a specific issue.
- citizens' groups (Common Cause, Public Citizen)
- single-issue groups (NRA, Right to Life)
- Grassroots movement (MoveOn.org, National
Organization for Women)
- Provide a way for individual members to express their opinions on issues more forcefully than would be possible for any one person alone. however, contribute to polarization of the American public b/cgroup of this type gets its power from agreement within its ranks on highly salient issue, discouraging debate and disagreement within the group and any type of compromise on that issue.
Citizens' groups:
Groups that form to draw attention to purely public issues that affect all citizens equally
single-issue groups
Groups that form to present one view on a highly salient issue that is intensely importnat to members, such as gun control or abortion.
Foreign Policy and International Groups
Foreign Policy
groups form to generate support for favorable US policies toward one or several foreign countries.
International aid groups encourage citizens to provide voluntary assistance to people in need all over the world. They are concerned with human rights to work to call attention to violations in the hopes of ending oppression.
- Most are (NGOs), not affiliated with any government and work hard to preserve their neutrality so that they can operate in as many parts of the world as
possible.
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
Organizations independent of governments that monitor and improve political, economic, and social conditions throughout the world.
Activites Interest Groups Engage In
They collect information about implications of policy changes and convey that information to lawmakers and other
policy makers. Lobbying effots aim to construct policies in ways that will most benefit their members.
- Lobbying most fundamental gateways for expressing views and securing a favorable response form government officials.
- Inform
- Lobby
- Campaign Activities
-
Activities interest groups engage in: Inform
- Provide informationa bout issues they care about to members, the media, government
officials, and general public.
- Provide members interpretations of how developments will affect their mission and goals
- work hard to inform government officials about the impac of specific public policies. Mostly, lobbyists ave pro or con positions ona policy proposal, and their goal is to persuade governmen officials to agree with their perspective.
- Groups convey information via e-mail; telephone; personal meetings with staff, elected officials, and bureaucratic regulatory
process to respond to regulations with comments to influence how laws are carried out by the executive branch.
Activities Interest Groups engage in: Lobbying
- Lobbyist: Groups can use their own employees as lobbyists or contract with firms that specialize in lobbying. Lobbyists are typically individuals who have held public service jobs at some point in their careers. Three common pathways: workin on Capitol
Hill, Working in the executive branch, or working on a political campaign. 1st branch: political campaign for congressional candidate or work in a congressional office --> leave to join a corporation, lobbying firm or a law firm with a branch that lobbies on specific legal matters. 2nd branch: practicing attorneys --> work in Congress or the executive branch --> join a company or lobbying firm. High costs of lobbying justified (to lobbyists) because it is a way of getting to know
members of Congress ina smaller and more relaxed setting, which they claimed would enable them to enhance their or their client's influence in the policy process.
- Lobbying Strategies: Inside strategy. Outside strategies: getting press and members more directly involved --> interest groups try to make use of press's watchdog role over the government.
Inside strategy
A strategy employed by interest groups to pursue a narrow policy change and influence legisltaors directly rather than using a wider grassroots approach.
Campaign Activities
- 501(c)(3) organisations likely to be charities, religious organisations, public service organisations, employee benefit groups, and fraternal societies. They can produce voter education guides or other nonpartisan educational materials that explain issues brought up during a
political campaign and keep the public informed.
- 501(c)(4) organizations. Not required to reveal their contributors.
501(c)(3) organizations
Tax-exempt groups that are prohibited from lobbying or campaigning for a party or candidate.
501(c)(4) organizations
Tax-exempt groups that exist to promote social welfare and can advocated for specific policy issues.
political action committees (PACs)
Groups formed to raise and contribute funds to support electoral candidates and that are subject to campaign finance laws. All PACs, make campaign contributions to candidates they believe will be supportive of their policy goals.
- Many observers expressed concern tha PACs exert disproportionate influence over legislators, create
imbalance in government responsiveness toward some groups.
Issue ads
- Before 2010, interest groups could run issue ads on specific issues within certain time frame prior to an election according to federal election laws.
- In 2010, Supreme Court removed virtually all limits on issue ads, and individuals, corporations, and unions can spend as much money as they want on issue ads.
- McCutcheon et al. v.
Federal Election Commission - removing voerall limits on amount of money one individual can contribute to all federal elections. Still limits on how much money given to one candidate, bt individual can now contribute to every single candidate running for fed. office and political parties.
pluralist
view of democratic society in which interest groups compete over policy goals, and elected officials are mediators of group conflict.
Natural Balance or Disproportionate Power
-Some voice are louder than others and that government is more resopnsive to louder voices and will consistently serve such groups at the expense of those who cannot make their voices heard.
- Interest groups form and survive by appealing to a particular segment of society, so they are inherently exclusive. Some, like E.E. Schattschneider
sdescribed this aspect of interestt groups as an actual threat to democracy. Like iligitemacy, some will claim to represent citizens when it in fact they seek narrow benefits for their members at expense of non-members (unfairness).
- every interest group does not have equal opportunity to be influential (false sense of security when citizens live in an interest group society)
- well-funded interest groups can more easily pressure government to produce policies beneficial to members,
government responds unequally across all ciizens
Special interests
Set of groups seeking a particular benefit for themselves in the policy process
Self-Serfvice or Public Service
- question of legitimacy of an interest group's activities omes when a victory for one group means a loss for another (or loss for general public)
-
frustrating aspects of role that interest groups play in deomcracy = groups contesting a single issue talk over ach other and don't collaborate. Responsibility is left iwht members of Congress and exec branch to balance their own responses to interest group requests and still maintain responsiveness to constituents and nation at large.
Open or Closed Routes of Influence
- Iron triangle is a network forged by
members in three categories that works to seal off access to public policy making - Lobbyists and interest groups want to maximize benefits from fed. programs. members of Congress want to maximize their power to shape the programs. Federal bureaucrats want to maximize their longevity as administrators of these programs.
- Heclo argues "issue networks" describes relationship better - interest groups, members of Congress, and bureaucrats all share information constantly , and their interactions
are open and transparent, not closed. Due to recent media, like 24-7 news cycle, Twitter messaging, and other telecommunications, it is harder than ever for self-serving interconnections to go unnoticed.
Iron triangle
Insular and closed relationship among interest groups, members of Congress, and federal agencies.
issue network
view of the relationship among interest groups, members of Congress, and federal agencies as more fluid, open, and transparent than that described by the term iron triangle.
revolving door
Movement of members of Congress, lobbyists, and executive branch employees into paid positions in each other's organizations
- can act against wider participation, as the same set of people can move from one branch of government
to another and then ot the private sector.
Characteristics of Successful Interest Groups
- Leadership Accountability
- membership outreach
- financial stability
- public influence
Characteristics of Successful Interest Groups: Leadership accountability
- typically takes an individual who acts as an interest group
entrepreneur to organize citizens into a formal group that agrees on a united purpose. In return for organizing the group, interest group entrepreneur typically takes a leadership role in directing the group's activities.
- members are willing to pay group leaders and give them power in group in return for accomplishing the group's collective goals.
- iron law of oligarchy.
- Citizens have right to expect accountability from interest group leaders, and interest groups that want to
sustain themselves understand that their membership needs to remain satisfied over time.
iron law of oligarchy
Theory that leaders in any organization eventually behave in their own self-interest, even at the expense of rank-and-file members; the larger the organization, the greater the likelihood that the leader will behave this way.
Characteristics of Successful Interest Groups: Membership Stability
- leaders need to find balance between membership size and organisation's purpose. Too many members = internal disagreements about policy goals. Too few = weaken group's ability to exert influence in policy system.
- providing selective benefits
- material, solidary and expressive benefits
- The Free Rider Problem: incentives disappear to join interest groups because some benefits are widespread.
- The
Economic and Political Change Problem - negative impact on a group's membership stability
selective benefits
benefits offered exclusively to members of an interest group
Free rider problem
Problem faced by interest groups when a collective benefit they provide is so widespread and diffuse that members and nonmembers alike receive it, reducing the incentive for joining the group.
Financial Stability
- Internet makes fundraising easier b/c allows groups to solicit money w/o incurring costs for printed advertising, mailers, and postage
- creating not-for-profit businesses within organization --> financial stability
- financial challenge = keeping operating costs in line with their expected income
- financial
mismanagement by group leaders --> financial difficulty
- outlive usefulness and members cease paying dues SOMETIMES --> financial difficulty
Influence in the Public Sphere
Groups face constant pressure to signal to members, as well as ot the public at large, that they have a significant role in policy formation on the issues about which members are most concerned.
Interest Group Goals
pursue and protect goals
motivate people to work together
represent member's interests
What makes interest group successful?
Leadership, dedicated members, organization
adequate funding
notion of collective good
Lobbying (lecture)
- Lobbying:
attempting to influence policy and/or legislative process
- the post congressional (revolving door) career (25-50%)
- have a lot of sway, with congressman
- Follow the money
- McCain-Feingold - limit amnt. money way you could donate money. freedom of speech or freedom of money.. money = speech
- 501c3s-501c4s - "Citizens United"
- 501c4 can trash one side or candidate. without directly writing check to their side --> loophole to campaigning (not actually
campaigning)
- Citizens United decided corps = citizens and they could spend unlimited amt. of money to voice their opinions.
- PACs - raising money. Using checks to give to organizations, less restrictions, raise more money. to vote for the right candidate. Money going in multiple directions instead of directly to candidate - some integrity.
- lobbyists #1 job is consultant/expert in issue area
Pushing Back
-
Fair?
-Grassroots lobbying
- door-to-door information drives
- petition drives and internet drives
- nonviolent marches
- civil disobedience
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