Lecture – Interest Groups
1. The Character of Interest Groups. An interest group is a group of people that organizes to be
heard by and influence government programs and policies. They are sometimes referred to as
lobbies. Interest groups concern themselves with government’s policies rather than
government personnel. There are a large number of interest groups in the United States, and
many Americans are members of one or more groups. Interest groups represent the interest of
their members, encourage political participation, enhance democracy, educate and mobilize
voters, lobby, and monitor governmental activity. However, not all interests are represented
equally; their politics can sometimes work to the advantage and disadvantage of others.
Pluralism states that all interests are and should be free to compete for influence in the
government. The outcome of this competition is compromise and moderation.
A. Common Types of Interest Groups. Interest groups take as many forms as the interests
they represent. These interests can be grouped as follows:
1. Business and Agricultural Groups: These groups have a direct economic interest in
governmental action. They include producers or manufacturers in the economic sector.
An example of these groups is the National Petroleum Refiners Association. These
broad groups have highly active members in Washington, such as Shell Oil, IBM, and
General Motors.
2. Labor Groups: These groups lobby on behalf of organized labor. An example is the
United Mine Workers.
3. Professional Associations: They help shape legislative policy and have been particularly
successful in the state and federal legislatures. Notable examples include the American
Bar Association and the American Medical Association.
4. Public Interest Groups: These groups lobby for public concerns not addressed by
traditional lobbies. They are most visible in the consumer and environmental protection
areas. Examples include the Sierra Club and Common Cause.
5. Ideological Groups: These groups support a philosophical perspective. For example,
People for the American Way promotes liberal values, whereas the Christian Coalition
focuses on conservative political goals.
6. Public Sector Groups: Growing public sector lobbies have generated representation for
groups such as the League of Cities and the university research lobby.
B. What Interests Are Not Represented? It is difficult to categorize unrepresented interests
because they are not organized and not able to present their identity or demands. These
interests are “potential interest groups” that can develop by voluntary association.
However, many widely shared interests do not get organized and recognized.
C. Organizational Components. Most interest groups share key organizational components,
including the following:
1. Leadership: The decision making structure that may consist of informal entrepreneurs
initially, and then develop professional leadership.
2. Money: The financial structure to fund the groups’ activities. These groups rely on
member dues, sale of services, and contributions.
3. Agency or office: Groups must be able to establish an agency that carries out the
group’s tasks.
4. Members: Groups must attract and keep members. Interest groups must persuade
individuals to invest the money, time, and energy to participate in the group. Members
play a larger role in some groups than in others. In membership associations (organized
groups in which members play a substantial role), members sit on committees and
engage in group projects. In staff organizations (a type of membership where members
are called on only to pay dues and make other contributions), professional staff
conducts most group activities.
D. The “Free Rider” Problem. Both types of groups need members. However, it is difficult to
find members. The economist Mancur Olson explains that collective goods (benefits sought
by groups that are broadly available and cannot be denied to nonmembers) can be enjoyed
by inactive members, or free riders (those who enjoy the benefits of collective goods but do
not participate in acquiring them). The free riders do not stop groups from trying to get
goods; instead they try harder in order to encourage free riders to join.
Why Join? Groups make “selective benefits” only available to members, including:
Information benefits: Special newsletters, periodicals, training programs, conferences, and
other information are provided to group members to join.
Material benefits: Special goods, services, or money are provided to group members to
entice others to join.
Solidarity benefits: These are selective benefits of group membership that emphasize
friendship, networking and consciousness raising.
Purposive benefits: These are selective membership benefits that emphasize the purpose or
pursuit and accomplishment of important group goals.
E. The AARP and the Benefits of Membership. Formerly called the American Association of
Retired Persons, the AARP has been extremely successful at recruiting members and
mobilizing them for political action. It has 36 million members and an annual income of
$900 million. The AARP enrolled this large membership because it provided the selective
benefits necessary for individuals. In such large groups, factional disputes may arise.
However, the AARP leadership can mobilize thousands on issues with the “telephone tree”
strategy. Leaders in Washington contact state chairs, who in turn contact district directors,
and then they call AARP chapters and then individual members. Within 24 hours, AARP
members contact local, state, and national officers to express their opposition to proposed
legislation. It is no wonder that AARP is respected and feared in Washington.
F. The Characteristics of Members. Interest group membership is not random. People with
higher incomes, higher education levels, and management or professional occupations are
more likely to be group members than those in lower socioeconomic levels. This is because
the have the time, money, and education needed to play a role in a group. Therefore,
interest group politics has an upper class bias. In general, for the bottom socioeconomic
rungs to obtain representation, they must organize on a massive scale.
2. The Proliferation of Groups. With governmental expansion came interest group expansion.
The first expansion of interest groups began in the 1880s, when the federal government
expanded to regulate commerce, monopoly, and thus the economy. In response, the trade
unions organized. Then, in the 1930s, interest groups based in Washington grew significantly,
concurrently with the national government. Over the past decades there has been an increase
in the number of groups seeking to influence public policy and the opportunity to influence that
process. This is due to the expansion of government’s role during this period and the coming of
age of dynamic political forces that rely on lobbies to advance their interests.
A. The Expansion of Government. Government expansion has stimulated increased group
activity and organization.
B. The New Politics Movement and Public Interest Groups. The emergence of a new set of
American political forces called New Politics has stimulated recent lobbying activity. The
New Politics movement is a political movement that began in the 1960s and 1970s, made up
of professionals and intellectuals for whom the civil rights and antiwar movements were
formative experiences. The New Politics movement built or strengthened public interest
groups. Their success was based on technology. These groups seek to distinguish
themselves from other groups by styling themselves as public interest groups (groups that
claim they serve the general good rather than only their own particular interest). However,
the claim to represent only the public good must be measured with caution, for some
private interests like to hide behind it.
3. Strategies: The Quest for Political Power. Interest groups work to be heard and to influence all
branches and levels of government. They use different strategies to do so. Insider strategies
include going public and using electoral politics.
A. Direct Lobbying. Lobbying is an attempt by a group to influence the policy process through
persuasion of government officials. Lobbying entails a broad range of activities to influence
the policy making process. A lobbyist is any person hired to influence the passage or defeat
of legislation. Any organization employing lobbyists must register them and disclose whom
they represent, for whom they lobby, what they are looking for, and how much they are
paid. Lobbyists serve important purposes in the legislative and administrative process by
providing government officials with facts about issues or claims.
1. Lobbying Congress. Traditionally, the term lobbyist refers to individuals who seek to
influence the passage of legislation in Congress. The First Amendment to the
Constitution provides for the right to “petition the government for a redress of
grievances.” As early as the 1870s, lobbying became the common term for petitioning.
Petitioning may not be done on the floor of the House or Senate. Therefore, petitioners
must confront members of Congress in the lobbies of the legislative chamber; this gave
rise to the term lobbying. Lobbying is a strategy by which organized interests seek to
influence the passage of legislation by exerting direct pressure on members of the
legislature. In many instances, the influence of lobbyists is based on personal
relationship networks and behind the scenes services that they are able to perform for
lawmakers. Many of Washington’s top lobbyists have close ties to important members
of Congress or were themselves important political figures, thus virtually guaranteeing
that clients will have direct access to congressional leaders. Lobbyists married to
powerful legislators can also promise their clients access to the highest levels of
government. Interest groups also have influence in setting the legislative agenda.
Today, sophisticated lobbyists win influence by providing information about policies to
busy members of Congress.
Also, lobbyists testify on behalf of their clients at
congressional committee and agency hearings. However, those who do not engage in
extensive lobbying risk the following dismissal: “They don’t give money. They don’t
have congressional representation – so nobody here cares about them,” as an
influential member said about Walmart, before the retail giant became savvy with the
ways of Washington and increased exponentially its spending on lobbying.
2. Lobbying the President. So many individuals and groups clamor for connected
members of the lobbying community can hope to influence presidential decisions. Thus,
it shouldn’t come as a surprise that in all administrations, one is likely to find among a
president’s key political advisers and fund-raisers individuals with ties to the lobbying
industry.
3. Lobbying the Executive Branch. The prospect of full implementation of a law is not
guaranteed by getting a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president. Therefore,
40 percent of lobbyists contact the legislative and executive branch is protected by law.
The Administrative Procedure Act requires most federal agencies to provide notice and
an opportunity for comment before implementing proposed new rules and regulations.
Also, the 1990 Negotiated Rulemaking Act encouraged administrative agencies to
engage in direct negotiation with the affected interest when developing new
regulations. These two legislations opened the bureaucratic process to interest group
(stakeholder) influence.
B. Cultivating Access. Through a well connected lobbyist, money can purchase access and
influence. For the most part, access to decision makers does not require illegal activity. In
many areas, interest groups, government agencies, and congressional committees work
together for mutual benefit. This relationship pattern is called an iron triangle, defined as
the stable, cooperative relationship that often develops among a congressional committee,
an administrative agency, and one or more supportive interest groups (e.g. the defense
industry). Other policy domains such as welfare and the environment are not controlled by
iron triangles but by rival issue networks (loose networks of elected leaders, public officials,
activists, and interest groups drawn together by specific policy issue). With the growing
influence of the lobbying industry, stricter guidelines regulating lobbyists’ actions have been
adopted.
C. Using the Courts (Litigation). Sometimes, interest groups turn in litigation when they lack
access and influence or when they are dissatisfied with government and its programs. An
interest group can use the courts to affect policy in three ways:
 By bringing suit directly on the behalf of the group
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By financing suits brought by individuals.
By filing a companion brief as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in an existing case.
Among the most notable cases found are Roe v. Wade took away and Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (ended legal school segregation).
Mobilizing Public Opinion. “Going public” is a strategy that attempts to mobilize the widest
and most favorable climate of opinion. It is associated with modern advertising.
1. Institutional Advertising. This form is designed to create a positive public image of an
organization in order reach Congress. For example, major oil companies and large
corporations advertise how much they are doing for the nation.
2. Protest and Demonstrations. Many groups resort to going public because they lack the
resources, the contacts, or the experience to use other political strategies. They may
use boycotts, sit-ins, mass rallies, and marches to go public and create a more favorable
climate of opinion (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr.).
3. Grassroots Mobilizations. Another way to go public with a campaign is for a group to
mobilize its membership to contact government officials in support of the group’s
position. Among the most effective grassroots groups in American politics is the
religious right. Grassroots lobbying has become more prevalent in Washington over the
last couple of decades, because the adoption of congressional rules limiting gifts to
members has made traditional lobbying more difficult.
Using Electoral Politics. Interest groups also seek to use the electoral process to elect the
right legislators in the first place and to ensure that those who are elected will owe them a
debt of gratitude for their support.
Political Action Committees. Political action committees (PACs) are private groups that
raise and distribute funds for use in election campaigns. This is the most common electoral
strategy employed by interest groups. PACs give financial support to the parties or the
particular candidates. The campaign spending of activist groups is carefully kept separate
from party and candidate organizations to avoid the restrictions of federal campaign finance
laws. PACs and campaign contributors provide organized interests with such a useful tool
for gaining access to the political process that calls to abolish them are more frequent now.
One powerful but little known campaign finance tactic is the formation of strategic alliances
between corporate interest groups and ideological not for profit groups. A corporate
interest may find it useful to hide its campaign contributions by laundering them through a
not for profit.
Campaign Activism. Financial support is not the only way that organized groups seek
influence through electoral politics. Sometimes activism can be more important than
campaign contributions. Activists’ efforts to bring voters to the polls can win parties an
election.
Initiative. Another tactic used by interest groups is sponsorship of initiatives at the state
level. The initiative is a device adopted by a number a states allowing proposed laws to be
placed on the general ballot and submitted directly to the state’s voters.