INTEREST GROUPS
• Interest groups are the building blocks of American
politics.
• Since the time of James Madison, they have been
understood to be essential to our political system.
• Interest groups represent those who share material
interests-----such as students hoping to keep
government grants and loans----or share values---such as students who want to ban abortions or guns.
• So interest groups are basic to our system, but they
must be organized, and once organized, maintained.
• In elections, interest groups make contributions and
endorsements, and some provide volunteers to
campaigns.
• Most major interest groups are more or less connected
to one of the major political parties; for example when
Democrats do well, labor benefits, but when
Republicans succeed, management usually prevails.
A common way of categorizing interest groups is to
distinguish between those that represent special interests
and those that represent the public interest. More
specifically, interest groups may be classified by four basic
types:
1. Associational interest groups have distinctive name,
national headquarters, professional staff, and political
agenda tied to specific group characteristics, goals,
beliefs, or values.
2. Non-associational interest groups lack formal
structures and reflect largely unvoiced social, ethnic,
cultural, or religious interests capable of coalescing
under the right circumstances.
3. Institutional interest groups exist mainly within
government, though some outside groups….for
example major defense contractors…..are so
intertwined in the operations of government that they
should be included in this category.
4. Anomic interest groups sometimes develop
spontaneously when many individuals strongly oppose
specific policies. (student demonstrations, street riots,
assassinations?)
Concepts:
>Aggregation
>Articulation
>Agendas
>Coalitions
>Complexes