Interest Groups
• A private organization that tries to persuade
public officials to respond to the shared
attitudes of its members
• Interest groups attempt to influence public
policy by operating where those policies are
made or can be influenced, at every level of
government.
Political Parties and Interest Groups
•
There are three major differences between political
parties and interest groups
1. Parties nominate candidates for public office.
2. Political parties are chiefly interested in winning
elections and controlling government. Interest groups
are chiefly concerned with controlling or influencing the
policies of government.
3. Political parties deal with a wide-range of affairs.
Interest groups only focus on the issues that immediately
effect them.
Good or Bad?
• Valuable functions of interest groups:
– Help stimulate interest in public affairs; represent the
interest of their members; provide useful, specialized,
detailed information to government; vehicles of political
participation; add another element to our checks and
balances system; provide competition in the political
arena.
• Criticisms of interest groups
– Some are more highly organized and better-financed than
others; it is hard to tell who, or how many people a group
represents; many groups do not represent the views of all
the people they claim to speak; some groups use dirty
tactics.
Economic Groups
• Business Groups – business have always
looked to government to promote and protect
its interests.
– The U.S. Brewers’ Association, National
Association of Manufacturers, Chamber of
Commerce, Business Roundtable
– Trade Association – a segment of a business with
its own interest group. (American Trucking
Association and the National Restaurant
Association)
Labor Unions
• An organization of workers who share the
same type of job or who work in the same
industry.
– The AFL/CIO is the largest labor union in the
country with over 13 million members.
Agricultural Groups
• Interest groups that serve the interests of
agriculture.
– The Grange, American Farm Bureau Federation,
National Farmers Union
Professional Groups
• Protect the interests of workers in occupations
that require extensive and specialized training,
such as medicine, law, or teaching.
– American Medical Association, American Bar
Association, National Education Association
Other Interest Groups
• Groups that promote a specific cause
– ACLU – fights to protect civil and political rights.
– Common Cause – works for reforms to the political process
– League of Women Voters – dedicated to stimulating participation by
women in the political process.
– National Rifle Association – protects the 2nd Amendment
• Groups that promote the welfare of certain groups
– American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars
– American Association of Retired People
– NAACP
• Religious Organizations
– Christian Coalition
– National Catholic Welfare Council
– Anti-Defamation League
Public Interest Groups
• An interest group that seeks to institute
certain public policies of benefit to all or most
people in this country
– Common Cause
– Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen, Inc.
Interest Groups at Work
• Three major goals of interest groups
– To supply the public with information an
organization thinks the people should have.
– To build a positive image for the group.
– To promote a particular public policy.
Propaganda
• A technique of
persuasion aimed at
influencing individual or
group behaviors. Its
goal is to create a
particular belief.
• It works by beginning
with a conclusion, then
bringing in evidence
that supports it.
Affecting Public Policy
• Interest groups try to sway decisions of political
parties by keeping close ties with leaders of both
parties, by urging members to become active in party
affairs, by supporting a particular candidate, and by
donating money through PACs.
• Single-interest groups are PACs that concentrate
their efforts on one issue, such as abortion, gun
control, or health care, and campaign for or against a
candidate based solely on that issue.
Lobbying
• Is the activities by which interest group pressures are
brought to bear on legislators and the legislative
process.
– The major task for lobbyists is to work for those matters
that benefit their clients and against those that may harm
them.
– They try to persuade legislators and other policy makers by
giving them information about their cause, testifying
before committees, apply “grass roots” pressures, present
legislation to Congressmen, and rate members of Congress
in terms of helpfulness on public reports.
Lobby Reform
• Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act
– Required lobbyists, whose “principal purpose” is for
influencing legislation, to register with the clerk of the
House and the secretary of the Senate.
• The act was ineffective because it was difficult to define “principal
purpose”
– Lobbying Disclosure Act
• Requires registration by all individual lobbyists and organizations
that seek to influence members of Congress, their staffers, or any
other policy-making official.
– Name, address, principal place of business, description of activities,
and similar information about their clients.