Political Culture and
Public Policy Issues
Interest Groups, Economy, Foreign
Policy, and the Media

 1. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
 a. The decision makers who represent me at all levels of government are knowledgeable enough to make good decisions on their own.
 b. Citizens should be allowed to petition their elected officials in any way they choose to make their positions known.
 2. Lobbyist: Sounds positive or negative? What do you know already?

 Organizations established to carry out specific goals
 Types:
 Economic/business
 Professional
 Labor
 Public Interest (PIRG)/Government watchdog
 Ideological/Single issue (social, religious)

 Business:
 Chamber of Commerce
 Labor:
 AFL-CIO (union)
 Professional:
 American Medical Association
 American Federation of Teachers
 Single Issue: American Association of Retired People (AARP),
NOW, PETA

How they influence pubic policy
 Researching issues and developing public policy proposals
(“think tanks”)
 Giving political support to elected officials (electioneering)
 Coordinating grassroots organizing at the local level
(public opinion)
 Lobbying politicians to vote a certain way on bills

 People who persuade officials to vote on their interest group’s behalf
 Meeting in the “lobbies” of the chambers

 Registration
 Must disclose expenses
 Gift ban

 Influence of money
 Narrow interests
 Provide specialized information
 Keep Americans informed
 Kept in balance by competing interests (democratic pluralism)

 Former politicians who become lobbyists after leaving office
 Why might this be a problem?

 What were the results of your opinion poll from yesterday?
 Were the results surprising? Why or why not?

 1. Brief overview of your interest group
 Pick 1-3 interesting facts/points to share
 2. Your lobbying strategies and main goal
 How much $ spent
 Why you chose the tools you did
 3. Audience feedback
 NOT on the interest group’s topic or cause!
 On the lobbying strategies used/slogans/etc. and their effectiveness

 Which tools did you use most often? Did you use more direct lobbying of legislators or more grassroots mobilization? Why? How did you decide which tools to use?
 In your specific case, which tools do you think would be most effective in real life?

 Is lobbying a negative or positive part of the legislative process?
 How effective are lobbyists?
 What are the best ways for decision makers to acquire information?
 Are the laws that currently govern lobbying effective?

 Personal budget
 Government budget
 Taxes
 Stock Market

 OMB (Office of Management and Budget) helps the president create a budget to submit to Congress each year
 Balanced budget: Revenue = expenditures
 Surplus: Revenue exceeds expenditures
 Deficit: Expenditures exceeds revenue
 Deficits + interest = debt

How does the government spend its money?

How does the government get its money?
 Taxes:
 Income
 Sales
 Property
 Social security
 Corporate
 Excise tax/sin tax
 Estate/gift tax (indirect tax)
 Import tax (tariff)

 Progressive
 Income taxes
 Regressive
 Sales tax

How else does the government get its money?
 1. Social Security Trust Fund: Holds total of $2.67 trillion debt which is 19% of the total debt.
 2. The Federal Reserve: Holds total of $1.63 trillion, 11.3% of the total debt.
 3. China: Holds $1.6 trillion, 8% of total debt.
 4. US Households: Holds $959.4 billion of Treasury bonds, which is 6.6% of the total US debt.
 5. Japan: Holds 6.4% of total US debt.

 You will be creating your own business
 To start your business, you will need capital ($)
 Instead of borrowing, you can sell parts of your company to investors, who make profit (dividends)
 Shares (parts) of ownership in a company = stock
 Goal for businesses: Have your share price go up
 Goal for shareholders: Buy low, sell high!

 Stockbrokers:
 All start with $40
 Goal is to make the most money at the end of the game (cash plus the end value/price of your stocks)
 Companies:
 All start with 50 shares of stock
 Goal is to sell the most stock
 You will need to have a good business plan, specific details on how the company is run, and good marketing skills

 I am the market and I will be handling all of the money and deciding all stock prices!
 We will have rounds of trading. During rounds you will:
 Buy stocks (if you are a stockbroker)
 Try to convince buyers to buy your stock (if you are a company)
 At the end of each round, you will:
 Sell or hold onto your stocks (stockbrokers)
 Work on making your company better (companies)
 I will change the prices per share of stock for each company based on how well they are performing
 Higher = company doing well (more potential profit)
 Lower = company not doing as well (more potential loss)

 What should be the role/job of the media in a democracy?
 Do you think that the media is doing their job? Why or why not?
 What are positive aspects of the media today? Negative characteristics?

 TV: 24 hr. coverage (CNN), increasingly ideological
 Talk radio: Mostly conservative
 Internet
 Intense competition
 Dirty laundry
 Sensationalism
 Media conglomerates: Disney/ABC/ESPN;
TimeWarner/Turner Broadcasting, Viacom (CBS, MTV, VHI)

 “Liberal” media?
 Fox News vs. MSNBC
 Examples?