GOVT 2305
Interests Groups
In this section one of the driving
forces of politics.
Interest Groups
What is an Interest Group?
“any association of individuals or
organizations, usually formally
organized, that, on the basis of one
or more shared concerns, attempts
to influence public policy in its
favor.” - Britannica
They are similar to political parties
since they attempt to influence
what governing institutions do, but
while parties compete in elections,
interests groups do not.
They tend to focus very narrowly
on a specific issue, or on the needs
of a specific group.
Environmental groups, for
example, focus on the
environment.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce
focuses on the need of American
businesses.
They do so by working with
members of the different branches
to pursue their aims.
The relationships they establish with
people are often based on electoral
support. Interest groups get heavily
involved in funding the campaigns in order
to make these connections.
There are various ways this can be
done. A common way is for these
groups to form political action
committees (PACs). Recent changes
in electoral laws have allowed for
the development of Super PACs.
Contributions to political
campaigns may not guarantee a
seat at the table, but it helps. An
interest group may threaten to
fund an opponents otherwise.
These are the relationships they
attempt to develop.
The Legislature
Interest groups try to gain
influence with the standing
committees that have jurisdiction
over the legislation of interest to
the. Example: The energy sector is
interested in having close
connections with members of the
House Energy and Commerce
Committee.
Donations to leaders of the House
and Senate can help expedite
legislation being heard on the floor
of either chamber.
The Executive
Donations to presidential candidates
can influence who gets appointed to
head executive agencies. The ideal
situation for interest groups is for their
members to be appointed to these
agencies. This allows then to regulate
themselves.
This is called agency capture, or
regulatory capture.
In addition, interest groups try to
develop relationships with lower
level people in the executive
branch in order to influence the
rulemaking process. These are the
agencies create in order to clarify
how laws are to be implemented.
The Judiciary
Support for candidates for the
presidency and the Senate can
allow interest groups influence
over who is appointed to the
federal courts and the Supreme
Court. Some current members of
the Supreme Court have worked as
legal counsel for different interests
groups prior to being on the court.
Interest groups can also get
involved in Supreme Court cases by
initiating test cases designed to
take constitutional challenges to
the court, and by submitting
amicus briefs to the court that
present the court with arguments
regarding cases they are about to
consider.
Here’s a diagram that attempts to
lay out how interest groups
influence government officials.
Notice that the diagram makes
repeated mentions of lobbying.
We will discuss lobbying and influence seeking
later in this class, but a lobbyist is a person
skilled in getting the attention of members of
the proper governmental branch or agency and
persuading them to make decisions on behalf of
their client – usually the interest group.
Their major skill is knowing which
door to knock on, how to get it
opened, and how to get invited in
with to talk with an influential
person like the head of an
executive agency and a legislator.
That skill can be worth a lot of
money.
People who have experience
working in any of the branches
make ideal employees for interest
groups and lobbying firms.
The best employees are ex-office
holders, especially people who
were once members of Congress.
Others include:
Ex staffers in congressional offices and
congressional committees.
Ex employees in executive agencies
Ex clerks of members of the judiciary,
especially the Supreme Court.
People who work in these
positions gain experience in how
these institutional work and
connections with people within
them.
They know how the governing
process actually works and can be
valuable to interest groups.
Their experience can lead be
lucrative to interest groups
interested in promoting legislation
and rules that affect them.
They tend to be worth the money.
Powerful interest groups can help
develop networks that establish
relationships with legislative,
executive and judicial officials in
order to tighten control over
policies that benefit them.
Critics argue that a revolving door
exists between people that work in
governmental agencies,
congressional offices, and interest
groups.
These are the people that may
really run things.
Popular names for these
arrangements:
Iron Triangles
Issue Networks
Sub Governments
The most common arrangement is
called an iron triangle.
Members include:
Interest Groups
Legislative Committees
Bureaucratic Officials
Perhaps government can be best
thought of as hundreds of small
sub-governments that have
developed around each of the
policies established over time.
If the interest group is strong
enough to influence elections to
congress and the appointment of
executive officials, they can
effectively regulate themselves
Question: Is this corruption?
But this is not popular.
It leads to the impression that
interest groups serve special
interests whose benefits are
antithetical to those of the general
public. They do not promote the
general welfare.
James Madison would agree.
But we are all special interests if you think about it.
Other terms are also used to
describe these groups:
Pressure Groups
Special Interest Groups
Advocacy Groups
Examples of Interest Groups
National Groups
The AFL- CIO
The National Rifle Association
The American Civil Liberties Union
The Family Research Council
If there’s an interest, there’s likely a
group to represent it.
This does not mean that that
interest will be effectively
represented however. Not all
interest groups are equally
powerful.
Today’s interest groups are similar
to what James Madison called a
“faction.” We discussed these
when we discussed Federalist #10.
Madison gave them a definition:
“By a faction, I understand a number
of citizens, whether amounting to a
majority or a minority of the whole,
who are united and actuated by some
common impulse of passion, or of
interest, adversed to the rights of
other citizens, or to the permanent
and aggregate interests of the
community.”
This could easily define interest
groups.
Madison argued that factions develop
naturally in free, civilized societies, and
they tend to develop around whatever
interests exist in society. Contemporary
political scientists call these pocketbook
issues because they are material concerns
that hit people in the pocketbook.
“A landed interest, a
manufacturing interest, a
mercantile interest, a moneyed
interest, with many lesser
interests, grow up of necessity in
civilized nations, and divide them
into different classes, actuated by
different sentiments and views.”
People will pursue policies that benefit
themselves. And since a democracy is
driven by the majority, the laws that
will be passed will be those that
benefit whichever group has a
majority in the legislature.
Policies will not necessarily benefit the
common good or protect the interests
of the minority.
Madison was concerned that a
democratic system allows a
majority faction to become
tyrannical since it can control
governmental institutions.
Tyranny of the Majority
A minority faction cannot.
He suggested that a great variety of interests
should be allowed to compete in the legislature
in order to break apart permanent majorities.
He predicted that the large republic which
would be established under the Constitution
would guarantee that a large number if issues
would not only emerge, but would lead to the
development of a large number of factions.
Madison argued that a diverse
nation would develop a sufficient
variety of interests that would split
majorities into minorities.
It would produce lots of interest
groups, and these would break
apart the majority factions.
This is an important point because
it reminds us that there is nothing
new with the concept of a special
interest.
Furthermore, the constitutional
system assumes they will exist and
is designed to encompass and
compensate for them.
Madison’s prediction, after all,
came true. There are thousands of
interest groups around the nation.
But this can create a problem.
Madison warned that minority
groups have a negative side:
“[They] may clog the
administration, it may convulse the
society; but it will be unable to
execute and mask its violence
under the forms of the
Constitution.”
A minority can make
administration difficult. It can lead
to gridlock.
The author Jonathan Rauch coined
the term demoslerosis to refer to
this problem. What is it?
Demoslerosis: The progressive loss
of government’s ability to adapt
due to interest group pressure.
Interest groups have a tendency to pursue
their interests through governing
institutions, and once they are attained,
fight to retain those interests. This can
make it difficult for government to
innovate and change when necessary.
The political scientist Mancur
Olson went further and argued
that the rise of special interest
groups can lead to the decline of a
nation.
It makes dynamic change less likely
to occur.
A common complaint heard about
interest groups is that they resist
any innovations that might
compromise or undermine their
interests.
This can be problematic for the
common good – Madison
understood this.
Example: Do oil companies really
want renewable energy to
compete with them?
Do they do what they can to
minimize federal support for
companies that research and
provide alternative energy?
This makes adaptation difficult.
Bad policies can sometimes not be
changed because of the political
strength of the groups that are
benefitting from them.
Current examples:
Subsidies
Public Employment
How do interest groups form?
Are all interests in society able to
represent themselves well?
Madison’s Mistake
Implying that the existence of an
interests in society leads to the
development of a group to
represent those interests.
Groups needs catalysts in order to
form.
In Federalists #10, Madison
seemed to suggest that any
interest that existed would result in
the creation of a group that would
fight for that interest.
But not all interests are able to do
so.
Think about it, which is more
powerful, interests groups that
represent the wealthy or the poor?
Interests in society are only
effectively represented if there is
an organized group that does so.
But what would convince someone
to organize such a group? What
incentive exist for someone to do
so? What benefits accrue to people
who do so?
This has been a subject of study for
political scientists.
In The Logic of Collective Action,
Mancur Olson argued that large
groups have disincentives to form
because there will be a tendency
for some to free ride.
Modern understandings of interest
groups hold that organized groups
only form and remain powerful if a
mobilizing force works to form a
group and that there is a material
interest that convinces people to
join and work for the group’s goals.
Problem: Not all interests are easily
converted into groups.
Not every group can easily
overcome the free rider problem.
Here’s the basic question
presented buy the Free Rider
Problem:
Why work for collectively for a groups’
goals if you will benefit from it even if
you don’t do any work? If the benefit
can’t be separated between those who
contribute and those who do not.
If you’ve ever tried to organize a
group of people you know this.
There is little need to join a group,
if you will benefit from the group’s
efforts even if you do not
contribute. But if everyone thinks
this way, the group will not form,
and its objectives will not be
reached.
For a more thorough definitions of
the Free Rider Problem: Stanford
In order for a group to be formed,
there has to be a driving force
making it happen.
A political entrepreneur has to
develop incentives for people to
join the group. They have to
convince members to avoid the
temptation to free rider.
Political Entrepreneur
Notable Policy Entrepreneurs:
Richard Mellon Scaife
James Leininger
This person has to figure out how
best to overcome the free rider
problem that prevents individuals
that have a common interest from
working together to achieve that
interest.
Olson pointed out that these individuals
provide selective benefits to individuals
that they would not be able to get if they
were not members of the group and did
not participate to further the group’s
objectives.
A selective benefit is a reward or
punishment that fosters cooperation
among a group of people who might
otherwise free ride.
There are four basic types of
Selective Incentives
Material
Purposive
Solidary
Informational
Material
Members are encouraged to join
because they will receive material
benefits if they do so. Jobs or
business opportunities for
example.
Purposive
Joining the group helps one
advance a grand “purpose” such as
cleaner air, greater public morality,
or some other intangible reward.
Solidary
Joining the group puts one in touch
with other, similarly minded
people. Social options increse
Informational
The group makes its members
privy to information they cannot
get elsewhere.
An interesting read:
Salvation as a Selective Benefit
The strongest groups are those
that can provide tangible material
benefits to their members.
This explains why business interest
often win out over public interests.
Interest group politics benefits the
interest that can be most easily
organized.
Current example: the old are more
easily organized than the young.
Here’s a list of the top 25 interest
groups from 2001. Note that the
bulk are business and professional
organizations. A couple of labor
unions are there as well. All are
able to offer tangible benefits to
their members that they would not
otherwise receive if they were not
members of the group.
1. National Rifle Association
2. American Association of Retired People (AARP)
3. National Federation of Independent Business
4. American Israel Foreign Affairs Committee
5. Association of Trial Lawyers of America
6. AFL-CIO
7. Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America
8. National Beer Wholesalers of America
9. National Association of Realtors
10. National Association of Manufacturers
11. National Association of Homebuilders of the United States
12. American Medical Association
13. American Hospital Association
14. National Education Association of the United States
15. American Farm Bureau Federation
16. Motion Picture Association of America
17. National Association of Broadcasters
18. National Right to Life Committee
19. Health Insurance Association of America
20. National Restaurant Association
21. National Governors' Association
22. Recording Industry Association of America
23. American Bankers Association
24. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
25. International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Very few of these groups promote
the public interest.
Other interests – including
environmentalism, public
education, public health – are not
to be found on the list.
Here’s the irony: Those groups can
claim to represent the interests of
more people that the business
groups.
Size can create a disadvantage for
an interest group. The free rider
problem is more pronounced in
larger than smaller groups.
The benefits are more dispersed
and it is more difficult to deny
them to people who are not
members of the group.
It is more difficult to determine whether
someone is actually contributing to the group’s
objectives. It is easier to monitor the actions of
500 people than a million people.
Again, for a benefit to work properly it has to be
selective, it can only be received by people who
have joined and contributed to a group’s effort.
Unions are only strong if they can limit job
opportunities to their members. Professional
organizations are only strong if they can limit
the practice of a trade to people they license.
This helps explain why
environmental groups – and public
interest groups in general – can be
weak.
If the goal of a groups, for example, is clean air,
how can you limit that benefit only to people
who contributed to the group? If the air is
cleaner, everyone gets to breath it. The freerider problems are obvious.
Access to proper resources help as
well.
Wealthy groups can be effective
because they can hire experts and
have the ability to persistently
pursue their interests.
Anti-poverty groups lack muscle.
Types of Interest Groups
Business Groups
Professional Organizations
Labor Unions
Examples:
AFL – CIO
United States Chamber of Commerce
American Bar Association
American Medical Association
Public Interest Groups
National Rifle Association
National Organization for Women
American Association of Retired
Persons
American Civil Liberties Union
Family Research Council
Think tanks are a unique type of
group that develops policy
proposals and rationales that can
influence political debate
Examples of Think Tanks
American Enterprise Institute
Brookings Institute
Cato Institute
Center for American Progress
List of Think Tanks
Interest Groups active in Texas
Info from the Texas Tribune.
A list from Google.
Notable area groups:
Greater Houston Chamber of
Commerce
Metropolitan Organization