Special Interest Groups and
Propaganda
Civics 11.3
Economic Interest Groups
• Interest group based on a monetary interest
• Labor Unions: employees who work together
to achieve common goals.
– Better Working Conditions
– More Pay
• Chamber of Commerce
Social Interest Groups
• Many social Interest groups
• Private Groups
– Promote only special interests of its members
– NRA, NAACP, AARP
• Public Interest Groups
– Promote causes that affects the lives of Americans in
General
– League of Women Voters
– Nonpartisan - not affiliated with a particular party.
Interest Groups and the government
• #1 goal of interest groups is to influence public
policy
• Concentrate on Courts, Elections, Lawmakers
• Political Action Committees (PACs)- collect
money from members and donates it to a
specific candidate
Lobbying
• Lobbyists – representatives of interest groups
or Private company whose job is to contact
law makers
• Provides law makers with facts that support
their cause
• Interest Groups are protected by the 1st
Amendment right to assembly
Regulations on Interest Groups
• Laws restrict how much money they can give a
candidate
• Ex-Public Officials must wait to become
lobbyists.
Interest Groups use of Propaganda
• Interest groups often use Propaganda to further
their cause.
• There are 7 different types of propaganda
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
The Bandwagon: join us and win
Name-Calling
Endorsement
Stacked Cards
Glittering Generality
Just Plain Folk: Were just like you
Transfer
Endorsement: Popular people publically support candidates
Name Calling: focusing on your opponents negative aspects
Transfer: associating patriotic symbols
with a patriot
Glittering Generalities: The candidate
will bring use peace and prosperity
Stacked Cards: showing two different takes one
overly positive one overly negative