Interest Groups Past and Present:
The “Mischiefs of Faction”
A Nation of Interests
• The founders of the Republic referred to what are present
day interest groups as Factions.
• James Madison foresaw “factions” as an inevitable
development, with tendency toward “instability and
injustice.”
• Interest groups are also sometimes called “special
interests.”
• Some Americans identify with groups distinguished by
race, gender, ethnicity, age, occupation, or sexual
orientation.
• Others form groups based on common issues or interests,
i.e. gun control, tax reduction, education. Such groups or
associations that seek to influence government in some
way are called Interest Groups.
Interest Groups Past and Present:
The “Mischiefs of Faction”
•Social Movements – a large body of people who are
interested in a common issue, idea, or concern that is of
continuing significance and who are willing to take
action to support or oppose it.
• Interest groups sometimes begin as movements.
• Social movements represent groups that has felt
unrepresented by government.
•How do they differ?
• Interest groups usually work within the framework of
government and employ tactics such as lobbying to
achieve their goals.
• Movements seek to change attitudes or institutions, not
just policies.
Types of Interest Groups
•Economic Interest Groups
• Business – large corporations, including multinationals
• Trade and Other Associations – businesses with similar
interests join together as associations which are as
diverse as the product and services they provide.
• Labor – workers’ associations with shared interests,
ranging from professional standards to wage and
working conditions. Examples: American Farm
Bureau Federation, United Farm Workers Association,
AFL-CIO.
•Open shops – union membership cannot required
•Closed shops – union membership can be required
•Free riders – individual not in the union but who
benefits from union activity.
Union Membership in the U.S. Compared to
Other Countries
Labor Force and Union Membership
1930-2010
Types of Interest Groups (continued)
•Economic Interest Groups (continued)
• Professional Associations – professional associations
with shared interests. Examples: American Medical
Association, American Bar Association, American
Federation of Teachers, American Realtors Assoc.
•Ideological or Single-Issue Interest Groups
•Public Interest Groups (PIRGs)
• Seek to influence policy on Capitol Hill and in several
state legislatures on environmental issues, safe energy,
and consumer protection.
•Foreign Policy Interest Groups
•Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs )
Types of Interest Groups (continued)
•Government & Government Employee Interest
Groups
•Governments are themselves important interest groups.
•Government employees form a large and well-organized
group.
•Public employees are increasingly important to
organized labor because they constitute the fastestgrowing unions.
•Other Interest Groups
• Veteran’s groups
• Nationality groups
• Religious organizations
• Environmental groups
Types of Interest Groups: Ideological or
Single-Interest Groups
The Christian
Coalition
distributes voter
guides before
elections as one
means of
influencing politics
The National Rifle AARP: The Nation’s
Most Powerful Interest
Association
Group
• 36 million members
• Offers a wide array of
material benefits like
insurance and magazines
• One of the most influential
lobbying groups in D.C.
Types of Interest Groups:
Public Interest Groups
Ralph Nader - Ran for
president as Green
Party candidate in
1996 and 2000 and as
independent in 2004
Foreign Policy Interest Groups
•Council on Foreign Relations
•American-Israel Political Action Committee
Public Sector Interest Groups
•National Governors Association
•National League of Cities
•National Educational Association
Other Interest Groups - Some Environmental
Groups and How They Do Business
Major Organized Interest Groups
Characteristics and Power of Interest
Groups
• Collective Action: Refers to how groups
form and organize to pursue their goals or
objectives, including how to get individuals
and groups to participate and cooperate.
• Public Choice: Synonymous with
“collective action.” Public choice
specifically studies how government
officials, politicians, and voters respond to
positive and negative incentives.
Characteristics and Power of Interest
Groups
•Size and Resources
•Incentive to participate
•Cohesiveness
•Leadership - Inspirational leadership can be instrumental in building
membership
•Techniques
•Publicity and Mass Media Appeals
•Mass Mailing
•Direct Contact with Government
•Federal Register – an official document, published
every weekday, listing the new and proposed
regulations of executive departments and regulatory
agencies. Organized groups have ready access to this
to influence Congress.
Interest Groups: Size and Resources
Resources can be used to provide selective benefits,
which can be used to overcome organizational barriers
•Material benefits
•Solidarity benefits
•Purposive benefits
Interest Groups: Cohesiveness
Types of members in an organization
Small number
of formal
members
People
intensely
involved with
the group
People who are
members in
name only
Leadership Profile
Marian Wright Edelman:
Lobbyist for the Poor
• Founder and president of the
Children’s Defense Fund
• Founded the Washington Research
Project
Bruce S. Gordon
• In 2005 elected the president
and CEO of the NAACP
• Successful businessman who
was named one of the “50 most
Powerful Black Executives” in
2002 by Fortune magazine
Characteristics and Power of Interest
Groups
•Techniques (continued)
•Litigation
•Amicus curiae (“friends of the court”) briefs –
filed by an individual or organization to present
arguments in addition to those presented by the
immediate parties to a case.
•Election Activities
•Forming a Political Party
•Cooperative Lobbying
•Protest
•Candidate Support
Other Techniques
The Influence of Lobbyists
•Who are the Lobbyists?
A person or persons employed
by and acting for an organized The Iron Triangle
interest group or corporation to
try to influence policy decisions
and positions in the executive
and legislative branches.
•What do Lobbyists Do?
Engage in activities aimed at
influencing public officials,
especially legislators and the
policies they enact. Lobbyists
primarily provide money for
campaigns.
The Influence of Lobbyists
Who Are the Lobbyists?
• Lobbyists are former public servants.
• Lobbyists are experienced in government.
• Lobbyists often go to work for one of the interests
they dealt with while in government.
What Do Lobbyists Do?
• Many lobbyists participate in issue networks or
relationships among interest groups, congressional
committees, subcommittees, and government agencies that
share a common policy concern.
• Interest groups provide money for incumbents.
• Interest groups provide information of two important types.
The Influence of Lobbyists
What Do Lobbyists Do? (cont.)
• Interest groups sometimes attempt to influence
legislators and regulators by going directly to the
people and urging them to contact public officials.
Money and Politics
Interest groups seek to influence politics and public policy
by spending money on elections in several ways.
• to candidates for their election campaigns, especially in
contested races.
• to political parties.
• to other interest groups.
• to the members of their group, including employees.
Money and Politics
•The Growth of Political Action Committees PACs
• PACs – the political arm of an interest group that is
legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis
from members, stockholders, or employees in order to
contribute to favored candidates or political parties.
•Types of PACs:
• Corporations
• Trade and health organizations
• Labor unions
• Ideological organizations
Money and Politics
Political Action Committees (cont.)
• More recently, elected officials have begun to
form their own PACs called Leadership PACs.
• Leaderships PACs are formed by an
officeholder who collects contributions from
individuals and other PACs and then makes
contributions to other candidates and political
parties.
• PACs are important not only because they
contribute such a large share of the money
congressional candidates raise for their
campaigns but also because they contribute so
disproportionately to incumbents.
Professional Associations - PACs That Gave the Most to
during the 2007-2008 election cycle (millions of dollars)
PAC
Operating Engineers Union
International Brotherhood of
Electrical Worker
AT&T
National Association of Realtors
Machinists-Aerospace Workers
American Association for Justice
American Bankers Association
National Beer Wholesalers
Association
Laborers Union
International Association of
Fire Fighters
Total
amount
Democrats
Republicans
2.03
1.79
86%
98
14%
2
1.78
1.76
1.48
1.48
1.45
1.41
38
59
97
97
40
52
62
41
3
3
60
48
1.38
1.32
93
75
7
25
Source: Center for Responsive Politics based on data released by the Federal Elections
Commission, April 28, 2008
PAC Contributions
to Congressional
Candidates
1998–2008.
Contributions to
Candidates for U.S.
Congress, 1975–2008
(in Millions).
Money and Politics
Political Action Committees (cont.)
• The law limits the amount of money that PACs, like
individuals, can contribute to any single candidate in
an election cycle.
• The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)
doubled individual contribution limits and mandated
that they increase with inflation while leaving PAC
contribution limits unchanged.
Other Modes of Electioneering
• Another way interest groups can influence the outcome of
elections is by persuading their employees, members, or
stockholders to vote in a way consistent with the interests
of the group.
Other Modes of Electioneering (cont.)
• Until the 2004 election cycle, interest groups and individuals
could avoid the contribution limitation to political parties by
contributing so-called soft money to political parties.
• Soft money is money raised in unlimited amounts by political
parties for party-building purposes.
• Issue Ads: Interest groups could also help fund so-called
issue ads supporting or opposing candidates as long as the ads
did not use certain words.
Independent Expenditures
• The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals, groups, and
parties can spend unlimited amounts in campaigns for or
against candidates as long as they operate independently from
the candidates. When an individual, group, or party does so,
they are making an independent expenditure.
Money and Politics
Campaigning Through Other Groups
• Interest groups found a way to circumvent disclosure and
contribution limits through issue advocacy.
• Use of ads that avoided the words “vote for” or “elect”
but which were clearly for one candidate
In this image from one of
Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth’s television
advertisements, thenpresidential nominee John
Kerry’s patriotism and
Vietnam War record are
called into question.
How Much Do Interest Groups Influence
Elections and Legislation?
• Because PACs give more money to incumbents,
challengers have difficulty funding their campaigns and
have to rely more on individual contributors.
• Mass-membership organizations fail to mobilize their
full membership in elections, while they can effectively
mobilize when their interests are directly attacked.
• Only a fraction of any candidates funds come from a
single group.
• It is debatable how much campaign contributions affect
elections.
• There is no guarantee that money produces a payoff in
legislation.
The Effectiveness of Interest
Group
Activity in Elections
• Tendency of PACs to give money to incumbents
has meant that challengers face real difficulties in
getting their campaigns funded.
• “Too often, members’ first thought is not what is
right or what they believe, but how it will affect
fundraising. Who, after all, can seriously contend
that a $100,000 donation does not alter the way
one thinks about--and quite possibly votes on--an
issue?” - Former U. S. Senator Alan Simpson (RWY)
How Much Do Interest Groups Influence
Elections and Legislation?
Curing the Mischiefs of Faction:
• Regulating lobbying
• Regulating political money
• Serious campaign finance reform began in the 1970s
with the Federal Election Campaign Act (1973)
• Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, the
definition of a lobbyist was expanded to include parttime lobbyists, those who deal with congressional staff
or executive branch agencies, and those who represent
foreign-owned companies and foreign entities.
Curing the Mischiefs of Faction–
Two Centuries Later
The 2002 Campaign Finance Reforms
•In 1992, President George H.W. Bush vetoed a bill.
•Increased momentum with Sen. John McCain and Enron
collapse.
•The Effects of Regulation
•Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 signed by George
W. Bush limiting soft money and PAC contributions.
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
 Passed in 2002 to update FECA of 1973.
 Outlaws use of soft money.
 Limits individual and political action committee funds.
 Political parties become larger players.
 Allows donations from “leadership PACs.”
 Does not regulate use of personal money.
 Regulates the use of public and matching funds.
Contribution Limits
Curing the Mischiefs of Faction–
Two Centuries Later
2007 Honest Leadership and Open Government Act
 Bans gifts, toughens disclosure, increases time limits.
Other Attempts: 1978 Ethics in Government Act
________ is an example of a public interest
group.
a. National Association for the
Advancement of Colored people
(NAACP)
b. Planned Parenthood
c. Chambers of Commerce
d. National Education Association
PACs that collect contributions from a
number of individuals and present them as a
single package to a candidate engage in the
practice of ________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Targeting
Bundling
Giving soft money
Influence peddling
Ralph Nader, the American Civil
Liberties Union, and the NAACP
have depended heavily upon ______
to influence public policy.
a. campaign contributions
b. persuasion
c. direct action
d. litigation
The 2002 campaign finance reform
law bans
a. Hard money
b. Soft money
c. PACs
d. Funny money
According to the 2002 law, how
much can an individual contribute
to a federal candidate in the general
election?
a. $1,000
b. $2,000
c. $4,000
d. $10,000