Interest Groups:
Organizing for Influence
Chapter 9
The Interest-Group System

Economic groups
 Business
groups
 Labor groups
 Farm groups
 Professional groups
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2
Percentage Union Members, by
Sector and Industry
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The Interest-Group System

Citizens’ groups
 Purposive
incentives
 Groups based on social groupings
 Single-issue groups
 Ideological groups
 Citizens’ groups difficult to classify
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4
Advantages and Disadvantages
Held by Economic and Citizens’
Groups
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The Interest-Group System

The organizational edge: economic groups
versus citizens’ groups
 Private
goods versus collective goods
 The free rider problem
 The size factor: business groups smaller and more
efficient
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Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence
through Official Contacts

Acquiring access to officials
 “Revolving door”
 Supply
officials with information—policy support
 Money is key element—amount contributed is
staggering
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Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence
through Official Contacts

Acquiring access to officials
 Lobbying
Congress
 Lobbying the executive
 Lobbying the courts
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8
The Top Fifteen Spending
Lobbying Groups, 2009
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9
Total Spending on Lobbying of
Federal Government
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10
Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence
through Official Contacts

Webs of influence: groups in the policy
process
 Iron
triangles
 Bureaucrats, lobbyists,
 Small,
 Issue
legislators
informal, stable
networks
 Officials,
lobbyists, and policy specialists
 Temporary
 More frequent than iron triangles
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How an Iron Triangle Benefits Its
Participants
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Outside Lobbying: Seeking Influence
Through Public Pressure

Constituency advocacy: grassroots lobbying
 Specialty
of the AARP
 Members of the public try to get lawmakers’
attention
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Outside Lobbying: Seeking Influence
through Public Pressure

Electoral action: votes and PAC money
funneling a group’s election contributions
 PAC contributions limited to $10,000 per
candidate for each election
 Most PACs associated with business
 Give much more heavily to incumbents
 PACs:
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Tactics Used in Inside and Outside
Lobbying Strategies
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Percentage of PACs by Category
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The Group System:
Indispensable but Biased

The contribution of groups to self-government:
pluralism
 Serving

the “public interest”?
Flaws in pluralism
 Interest-group
liberalism
 Not equally representative
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The Group System:
Indispensable but Biased

A Madisonian dilemma
A
free society must allow pursuit of self-interest
 Checks and balances work to protect rights, but
also exaggerate influence of minorities
 Groups can wield too much influence over
individual policies or agencies
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