Unit 5 - Topic 7 Objective:
Explain how various political actors influence public policy outcomes.
The purpose of single-issue groups, as the name suggests, is to focus time, energy, and
resources on a narrowly-defined area of concern. The most powerful single-issue group
in the United States is the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA consists of over 5
million members and focuses its efforts on limiting government policies that restrict gun
rights. The NRA leverages its vast resources to recruit new members, purchase political
ads, and fund lobbying efforts. Another powerful single-issue group is the American
Association of Retired Persons (AARP) AARP has the largest membership of any interest
group in the United States, and since its members (50+ years and older) vote in higher
numbers than any other subgroup, politicians tend to pay close attention to the group.
Several post-World War II social movements led to significant public policy outcomes
favoring groups that had historically been pushed to the side or ignored by the
government. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
was founded in the early twentieth century to pursue greater racial equality and social
justice for black Americans. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s caused
membership to increase exponentially and led to the creation of other like-minded
groups, such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC). The efforts of these groups culminated with the passage of two historic laws—
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—both of which paved the
way for better treatment of black Americans and set the stage for other marginalized
groups to fight for greater equality in the coming decades.