Interest Groups
• Interest Group
– An organization of people with shared policy
goals entering the policy process at several
points to try to achieve those goals.
– Interest groups pursue their goals in many
arenas.
Interest Groups
• Interest groups are distinct from
political parties.
– Political parties fight election battles; interest
groups do not field candidates for office but
may choose sides.
– Interest groups are policy specialists; political
parties are policy generalists.
• Interest groups can “access,” or influence
many points and levels of government
Interest Group Examples
• AARP (American Association of Retired People)
• Sierra Club (Environment)
• NAACP (National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People)
• NOW (National Organization of Women)
• ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
• PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups)
• NEA (National Education Association)
• AMA (American Medical Association)
• NRA (National Rifle Association)
Thousands of interest groups in the US
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)
NRA
• “You can have
my guns when
you take them
from my cold,
dead hands.”
• Charlton Heston, Moses,
Actor, former President of
the National Rifle
Association
People’s Society of Secretly
Communist Teachers Posing as
Conservatives
Interest Group Politics
• Are interest groups good or bad?
• Pluralist Theory
– Competition among groups trying to get their
preferred policies.
• Elite Theory
– Upper-class elite holds most of the power and
run government.
• Hyperpluralist Theory
– Groups are so strong that government is
weakened.
Interest Groups and
Pluralism Theory
• Groups provide a link between the people
and the government.
• Groups compete and no one group will
become too dominant.
• Groups play by “rules the game.”
• Groups weak in one resource may use
another.
• Lobbying is open to all groups, regardless
of group size or strength.
Interest Groups and
Elitism Theory
• Groups are unequal in power.
• Awesome power is held by the largest
corporations.
• Power of a few is fortified by interlocking
directorates.
• Other groups win minor policy battles,
but corporate elites consistently win the
big decisions.
Interest Groups and
Hyperpluralism
• Interest groups causing political chaos
• TOO MANY GROUPS,TOO MUCH
INFLUENCE
• Government trying to please everyone,
resulting policies are contradictory and
confusing
• Ex. – support removing manufacturing regulations
and support environment protection???
– impossible
What makes Interest
Groups powerful?
• Size (sometimes…stay tuned)
– Power of AARP – 25% of the population 50
and over
• Intensity – drive or effort put forth (single
issue groups fall into this category)
• Money
– form a PAC (Political Action Committee) –
donate money to campaigns and advertising
Surprising Ineffectiveness of
Large Groups
• Potential group – People who might be
group members because they share
some common interest.
• Actual group – Potential group
members who actually join group.
• Collective good – Something of value
that cannot be withheld from a potential
group member.
Surprising Ineffectiveness of
Large Groups con’t
• Free-rider problem – Problem of
people not joining because they can
benefit from the group’s activities
without joining.
• Selective benefits – Goods that a
group can restrict to those who actually
join.
Intensity of the Members
• A large potential group may be
mobilized through an issue that people
feel intensely about.
• Politicians are more likely to listen a
group that shows it cares deeply about
an issue.
• Single-issue groups – Narrow interest,
dislike compromise, and members are
new to politics.
Money, Money, Money…
• Not all groups have equal amounts of
money.
• Monetary donations translate into access
to the politicians, such as a phone call,
meeting, or support for policy.
• Wealthier groups have more resources
and access, but they do not always win on
policy.
How do Interest groups
get money?
• Donations (YOU!)
• Membership dues (also YOU!)
• Foundations
Ex. - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford
Foundation
• Federal grants and contracts
How Interest Groups
Work to Influence Policy
• Lobbying
– Communication to a governmental decision
maker with the hope of influencing his or her
decision.
– Lobbyists are
•
•
•
•
(1) a source of information
(2) helping to get legislation passed
(3) helping to formulate campaign strategy
(4) a source of ideas and innovations.
How Interest Groups
Work to Influence Policy
• Electioneering
– Direct group involvement in the electoral process
by helping to fund campaigns, getting members
to work for candidates, and forming political
action committees (PACs).
– PACs are political funding vehicles created by
the 1974 campaign finance reforms.
How Interest Groups
Work to Influence Policy
• Litigation
– Amicus curiae briefs – Written arguments
submitted to the courts in support of one side
of a case.
• Means “Friend of the Court”
– Class action lawsuits – Enable a group of
people in a similar situation to combine their
common grievances into a single suit.
How Interest Groups
Work to Influence Policy
• Going Public
– Groups try to:
• (1) cultivate a good public image
• (2) build a reservoir of goodwill with the public
• (3) use marketing strategies to influence public
opinion of the group and its issues
• (4) advertise to motivate and inform the public
about an issue.
How Interest Groups
Work to Influence Policy
How Interest Groups
Work to Influence Policy
• “Ratings Game”
– Interest groups will monitor the voting record
of legislators, particularly on controversial bills
– They assign and publish a grade for each
politician based on how well their voting
record matched the policy goals of the interest
group
Types of Interest Groups
• Economic Interests
– Labor – Union organizations press for
policies to ensure better working conditions
and higher wages.
– Business – Interests generally unified when it
comes to promoting greater profits but are
often fragmented when policy choices have to
be made.
Types of Interest Groups
• Environmental Interests
– Environmental groups promote policies to
control pollution and to combat global
warming, wilderness protection, and species
preservation.
– They oppose supersonic aircraft, nuclear
power plants, drilling in Alaska’s Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, and strip mining.
Types of Interest Groups
• Equality Interests
– Two sets of interest groups, representing
minorities and women, have made equal
rights their main policy goal.
– Equality groups press for equality at the polls,
in housing, on the job, in education, and in all
other facets of American life.
Types of Interest Groups
• Consumer and Other Public Interest Lobbies
• Public interest lobbies – Groups that seek a
collective good, and the achievement of which will not
selectively and materially benefit the membership or
activists of the organization.
• Often speak for “voiceless” groups – children, animals,
mentally ill
• Consumer groups – In 1973, Congress
responded to consumer advocacy by creating the
Consumer Product Safety Commission, which it
authorized to regulate all consumer products and to
ban products that were dangerous.
• Ralph Nader Unsafe at Any Speed
To Sum Up…
• James Madison wanted a wide-open
system in which groups compete
(Pluralism).
• Interest groups seek to maintain policies
and programs that benefit them.
• Interest groups pressure government to
do more things.
• As the government does more, more
groups form to get more.
IRON TRIANGLES
• Iron Triangles –
• a.k.a. Subgovernments; a mutually
dependent and advantageous relationship
between a bureaucratic agency, interest
groups, and congressional committees or
subcommittees that oversee that agency.
• Iron triangles dominate some areas of
domestic policymaking.
• You will see this term A LOT more…
The Revolving Door
• A criticism of interest groups
• Government officials quit their jobs or don’t
get reelected
• Then take government jobs for a certain
lobbying agency
• Fear that private interests by business
have an unfair influence on gov’t decisions
• Ex- official does favor in return for later job