INTEREST GROUPS
Introduction
• Medical malpractice insurance reform has been
an important policy issue in Texas politics.
• Between 1987 and 2002, malpractice insurance
premiums rose by 400 percent in Texas;
wherein, many physicians declared they could
no longer afford to remain in practice.
• The controversy over rising costs in malpractice
insurance has led to a battle over medical
malpractice insurance reform and features
some of the most powerful interest groups in
Texas politics.
Introduction
• An interest group is an organization of people who
join together voluntarily on the basis of some interest
they share for the purpose of influencing policy.
• The Texas Medical Association (TMA), a professional
organization of physicians, believes that the solution
to the problem is a cap on the amount of money a jury
can award in noneconomic damages.
• The Texas Trial Lawyers Association (TTLA), which is
an organization that primarily represents plaintiffs in
personal injury lawsuits, blames bad doctors and a
weak stock market for rising medical malpractice
premiums rather than excessive jury awards.
Introduction
• The revision of state laws to limit the ability of
plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits to recover
damages in court is known as tort reform.
• Groups on either side of the medical
insurance controversy attempted to influence
the policymaking process by a variety of
strategies and tactics.
• In Texas various types of interest groups
have become organized for the purposes of
participating in politics.
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Business Groups and Trade Associations
• Business groups and trade associations are the
most powerful interest groups in Texas politics.
• Business groups pursue their political goals as
individual firms (e.g. Bank of America, Reliant
Energy, SBC Communications) and through
trade associations (e.g. Texas Association of
Business).
• Business groups and trade associations are
effective because they are organized, wellfinanced, and skilled in advocating their
positions.
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Business Groups and Trade Associations (cont.)
• Business groups and trade associations
generally agree on the need to maintain a
good business climate, a political environment
in which businesses prosper.
• When business groups and trade associations
are united, they usually get what they want in
Texas.
• During the 1990s, several reform tort
measures were enacted, demonstrating their
effectiveness.
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Business Groups and Trade Associations (cont.)
• In 2003, the legislature and governor reacted to the
crisis over medical malpractice insurance by adopting
an additional set of tort reform measures.
• Caps on noneconomic measures – Patients
injured by medical malpractice can recover no
more than $250,000 in noneconomic damages
from a physician or other healthcare provider.
• Protection against product liability suits
• Joint and several liability reform
• The legislature and the governor adopted additional
tort reform measures in 2005 pertaining to asbestosand silica-related exposure lawsuits and obesityrelated health lawsuits.
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Professional Associations
• These associations are politically influential
because of the relatively high
socioeconomic status of their members.
• They concern themselves with public
policies that affect their members (e.g.
doctors, dentists, lawyers, realtors, and
etc.)
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Organized Labor
• Organized labor is relatively weak in Texas.
• Texas is a “right to work” state in which
state laws prohibit a union shop.
• A right to work law is a statue prohibiting a
union shop.
• A union shop is a workplace in which every
employee must be a member of a union.
• In a right to work state, union organizers are
forced to recruit members individually.
• In 2004, only 5% of Texas workers
belonged to unions, compared to a national
unionization rate of 12.5%.
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Organized Labor (cont.)
• Texan ranked 45th among the 50 states in
the level of unionization
• Most Texas unions belong to the American
Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO), which is a
national organization of labor unions.
• Texas unions include not only privatesector unions but also public employee
organizations.
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Agricultural Groups
• Agricultural interests have long been a powerful
force in Texas politics.
• As a group, farmers and ranchers are political
astute, organized, and knowledgeable about how to
exert influence in state politics.
• Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups
• Minority groups are interested in the enforcement of
laws protecting the voting rights of minority citizens,
the election and appointment of minority Texans to
state and local offices, college and university
admission policies, and inner-city development.
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups (cont.)
• The two best-known minority rights organization in the
state are affiliates of well-known national
organizations.
• The Texas League of United Latin American
Citizens (LULAC) is a Latino interest group.
• The Texas chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is
an interest group organized to represent the
interests of African Americans.
• Although racial and ethnic groups are considerable
more influential today than in the early 1960s, they
are not as powerful as the more established interest
groups in the state.
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Religious Groups
• Churches and other religious institutions provide
the foundation for a number of political
organizations.
• Roman Catholic and Protestant churches have
helped organize political groups to support health
care, education, and neighborhood improvement
for the state’s poor people.
• The most active and probably most influential
religiously oriented political groups statewide are
associated with the religious right, made up of
individuals who hold conservative social views
because of their religious beliefs (e.g. Christian
Coalition).
Interest Groups in Texas Politics
• Citizen, Advocacy, and Cause Groups
• Citizen groups are organizations created to support
government policies that they believe will benefit the
public at large. For example, Common Cause is a group
organized to work for campaign finance reform and other
good-government causes.
• Advocacy groups are organizations created to seek
benefits on behalf of persons who are unable to
represent their own interests. For example, Children’s
Defense Fund, is an organization that attempts to
promote the welfare of children.
• Cause groups are organizations whose members care
intensely about a single issue or a group of related
issues. Among them are the Texas Right to Life
Committee, the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights
Action League, the Sierra Club, and the National Rifle
Association.
Interest Group Tactics
• Electioneering
• Interest groups attempt to influence public policy by
participating in the electoral process.
• A variety of methods are included in this tactic.
• Endorsing favored candidates
• Delivering a bloc vote on behalf of a candidate
• Contributing money through a political action committees
(PACs), which are organizations created to raise and
distribute money in political campaigns.
• Texas does not limit the amount of money individuals,
businesses, or PACs can contribute in election
campaigns.
• The following slide graphs the amount of campaign
contributions given by three of the major financial
players in the battle over medical malpractice reform.
Campaign Contributions, 20032003-2004
Source: National Institute of Money in State Politics
Interest Group Tactics
• Electioneering (cont.)
• Interest groups consider several factors in
determining which candidates to support.
• Groups back candidates who are
sympathetic to their policy preferences.
• Interest groups typically contribute more
generously to incumbents than challengers
because they know that an incumbent, a
current officeholder, is more likely to win
than a challenger.
Interest Group Tactics
• Lobbying
• It is the communication of information by a
representative of an interest group to a government
official for the purpose of influencing a policy decision.
• A variety of methods are included in this tactic.
• Social lobbying – the attempt of lobbyist to influence
public policy by cultivating personal, social
relationships with policymakers
• Providing information on a piece of legislation
• Contributing money to a candidate’s campaign
during an election season
• Mobilizing groups members in the home districts of
legislators to contact their representatives
Interest Group Tactics
• Public Relations Campaign
• Seeking to influence policy by building public support
for the group’s points of view
• The groups supporting tort reform have conducted a
sophisticated public relations campaign to win support
for their point of view, i.e., purchasing billboards and
running television and radio advertisements against
what they called “lawsuit abuse.”
• Litigation
• Adopting the strategy of litigation (i.e. lawsuits) to
achieve the group’s goals
• Although litigation has been an important political tool
for interest groups, it has its limitations because court
action is both time-consuming and expensive.
Interest Group Tactics
• Protest Demonstrations
• Groups that cannot afford public relations
experts and advertising campaigns attempt
to influence public opinion by means of
protest demonstrations.
• Political Violence
• Occasionally, groups go beyond peaceful
protest and employ unconventional forms
(e.g. violent and/or illegal activities).
• Alliances
• Interest groups find power in alliances; they
form alliances with other groups and political
parties to pursue their goals.
Conclusion
• Interest groups are important
participants in every stage of the
policymaking process. The stages are:
• Agenda building
• Policy formulation and adoption
• Policy implementation and evaluation