Aim: What is an interest group and why do people join?
Do Now: Examine the list of interest groups. Which ones best
represent your interests?
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Center for Reproductive Rights
Friends of Tobacco
MADD
NAACP
American Medical Association
National Rifle Association
Defenders of Wildlife
Union of Concerned Scientists
American Life League
American Cheese Society
• Americans for Better
Immigration
• Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers
• American Civil Liberties Union
• Criminal Justice Policy
Foundation
Sierra Club
United Auto Workers (UAW)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
American Association of Retired People
(AARP)
National Association of the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP)
National Rifle Association
Interest Groups in Govt.
Interest Group: Any organization that seeks to
influence public policy. They are a linkage
institution: They help link citizens to government
Represent cleavages in our society
• Federalist #10
• They have many access points to government
• Where parties are weak, they operate in the
government
• Where parties are strong, they work through the
party
Types of Interest Groups:
Institutional: Individuals or organizations
representing other organizations. (General
Motors, American Cotton Manufacturers
Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Nat.
Association of Counties)
- They tend to focus on “bread-and-butter”
issues (economic issues that impact everyone)
Membership: Individuals or organizations
representing individual people of a particular
interest (NAACP, Sierra Club, NRA)
Types of Interest Groups
• Economic – Labor unions, agricultural,
Business, Professional
• Consumer – public interest, environmental
• Equality and Justice – racial issues, gender
issues, minority issues
Types of Interest Groups:
• 501 (c) (3): nonprofit group that may legally
address political matters but may not lobby or
campaign; donations to it are tax deductible
• 501 (c) (4): Nonprofit group that is permitted
to lobby and campaign; donations to it are not
tax deductible
Why people join:
Incentives:
• Material: money or things valued in monetary terms
(AARP)
• Solidary: social rewards, companionship, sense of
belonging (NAACP, LWV)
• Purposive: benefit from serving a cause or principle.
(Ideological groups - ACLU)
– Public Interest Lobby: when the purpose of an organization
will benefit nonmembers
– Free Rider Problem – when people don’t join because they
will benefit from the group’s efforts either way
– Try to remain in the public eye
– Do best when current administration is hostile to their
cause
Factors which Impact the Formation of Interest Groups
1. Broad economic developments create new
interests and redefine old ones
2. Increasing government policy and programs need
to be monitored
3. Social Movement – a widely shared demand for
change in some aspect of the social or political
order, e.g. Civil Rights Movement, Environmental
Movement
4. Groups are organized because they are impacted
by government activities, e.g. Labor Unions, social
program group supporters
Public Interest Law Firms:
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American Civil Liberties Union
Asian American Legal Defense Fund
Atlantic Legal Foundation
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
Mexican American Legal Defense Fund
Washington Legal Foundation
Pacific Legal Foundation
Mountain States legal Foundation
Women’s Legal Defense Fund
The Center for Individual Rights
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Natural Resources Defense Council
Landmark Legal Foundation
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
Liberal
• American Civil Liberties Union
• Asian American Legal Defense
Fund
• Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights
• Mexican American Legal Defense
Fund
• Women’s Legal Defense Fund
• Natural Resources Defense
Council
• NAACP Legal Defense and
Education Fund
Conservative
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Atlantic Legal Foundation
Washington Legal Foundation
Pacific Legal Foundation
Mountain States legal Foundation
The Center for Individual Rights
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Landmark Legal Foundation