Chapter 9
The Interest-Group System
 Economic groups
 Business groups
 Labor groups
 Farm groups
 Professional groups
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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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The Interest-Group System
 The organizational edge: economic groups versus citizens’
groups
 Unequal access to resources
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Private goods versus collective goods
The free rider problem
 The advantages and disadvantages of size
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The size factor: business groups smaller and more efficient
AARP and strength in numbers
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Insert Table 9-1
Advantages and Disadvantages Held by Economic and Citizens’ Groups
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Insert Table 9-2
The Fifteen Top-Spending Lobbying Groups, 2011
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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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Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence
through Official Contacts
 Webs of influence: groups in the policy process
 Iron triangles
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Bureaucrats, lobbyists, legislators
Small, informal, stable
 Issue networks
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Officials, lobbyists, and policy specialists
Temporary
More frequent than iron triangles
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Insert Figure 9-1
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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Insert Table 9-3
Tactics used in Inside and Outside Lobbying Efforts
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Outside Lobbying: Seeking
Influence through Public Pressure
 Electoral action: votes and money
 PACs (political action committees)
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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
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Insert Figure 9-2
Percentage of PACs by Category
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Outside Lobbying: Seeking
Influence through Public Pressure
 Electoral action: votes and money
 Super PACs or independent-expenditure-only-committees
(IEOCs)
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
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
Not allowed to contribute/coordinate directly to the party or
candidate
Unrestricted fundraising and spending
Disclosure of donors not required
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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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