Chapter 7
INTEREST GROUPS AND
CORPORATIONS
Lobbying For China



The President makes a decision each year about the most favored
nation (MFN) status of a particular nation, which Congress can
override by a two-thirds vote.
Certain nations must seek most favored status to avoid extremely
high tariffs and other restrictions on their products.
While Presidential determination about China’s trade status
prevailed for the past 16 years, the debate in Congress has
intensified.



President Clinton succeeded in the face of the political coalition
that developed in 1997 to oppose granting MFN to China.
The determination of trade policy toward China is similar to how
many federal government policies are determined.
The opening vignette in the text illustrates the importance of
interest groups and corporations in shaping what government does
in the United States.
Interest Groups in a Democratic
Society
 Roles
of interest groups
 Interest
groups are private organizations that try to
shape public policy.
 Interest groups try to influence the behavior of political
decision makers.
The Evils of Factions
 The American
public has traditionally viewed specialinterest groups as narrowly self-interested.
 James Madison warned of the dangers and divisiveness
of factions (his term for interest groups) in The
Federalist, No. 10.
 The theme of the evils of factions has recurred throughout
American history.
Interest Group Democracy: The
Pluralist Argument
 Many
political scientists believe that interest
groups serve as important instruments to attain
democracy and serve the public interest.
 Pluralists believe the interest group system is
democratic because people are free to join or to
organize groups that reflect their own interests.
Interest Group Formation
 Escalation
in the number of interest groups
 Interest groups formation tied to the existence of certain
structural factors
 When
there are many interests
 When the political culture supports the pursuit of private
interests
 Diversity
of interests in the United States
Rules of the political game in the United States
encourage the formation of interest groups.
 The
First Amendment guarantees citizens basic rights that
are essential to the ability of citizens to form
organizations.
 Government is organized in such a way that decision
makers are relatively accessible to interest groups.
 Because of federalism, checks and balances, and the
separation of powers, there is no dominant center of
decision making.
Interest Group Formation and the Growth in
Government
 As
government takes on more responsibilities, it
has a greater impact on facets of economic, social,
and personal life.
 People, groups, and organizations are increasingly
affected by the actions of government.
Disturbance Theory of Interest Group
Formation
 The
proliferation of interests does not seem to lead to the
formation of groups unless these interests are threatened
in some way.
 The disturbance theory is illustrated by the success of the
Christian Coalition which was created at a time when
many evangelical Christians felt threatened by family
breakdown, an increase in the number of abortions, and
the sexual revolution.
Incentives
 Some
social scientists argue that people do not
form groups when their common interests are
threatened unless the group can give back some
selective, material benefit to them.
 A selective, material benefit is a tangible benefit
that is available to members but not to
nonmembers.



If someone can get the benefit without joining the group (known as
a free-rider), then there may be no purpose in joining.
The free-rider problem tends to occur when a group is interested in
some collective good that benefits everyone and not just members.
There has been a proliferation of public interest and ideological
groups, which suggests purposes or incentives other than material
and selective incentives.
What Interests Are Represented
 Interest
groups may be classified by the type of
interest they represent.
 Public
interests are interests that are connected in one
way or another to the general welfare of the
community.
 Private interests are associated with benefits for some
fraction of the community.
Private Interest Groups
 Business
 The
Professions
 Labor
Public Interest Groups




Public interest groups are sometimes called citizens’ groups.
They try to get government to do things that will benefit the general
public rather than the direct material interests of their own
members.
There has been substantial growth in the number and influence of
public interest groups since the late 1960s.
Public-interest groups generally do not use material incentives.
What Interest Groups Do
 Interest
groups are composed of people with
common goals or interests who try to convey the
views of some sector of society and to influence
government on their behalf.
 There are two basic types of interest group
activity: the inside game and the outside game.
The Inside Game
 The
inside game involves direct contact of the interest
group representative and government officials.
 The
politics of insiders, of the old-boy network, of one-on-one
persuasion in which a skilled lobbyist tries to persuade a
decision maker to accept the point of view of the interest group
 Lobbying Congress
 Lobbying the executive branch
 Lobbying the courts
The Outside Game
 The
outside game is an indirect form of influence that
involves interest group efforts to mobilize public opinion,
voters, and important contributors.
 Evidence
of increased importance compared to “inside”
lobbying (though inside lobbying still tends to be more directly
effective)
 Mobilizing membership
 Organizing the district
 Shaping public opinion
 Involvement in campaigns and elections
Possible Flaws in the
Pluralist Heaven
 Representational
inequalities
 Resource inequalities
 Political
action committees (PACs)
 soft money
 independent expenditures
 Access
inequality
 Capture
 Interest
group liberalism
 Iron triangles, or subgovernments
 Issue networks
The Special Place of Corporations

Scholars have found that corporations dominate other interest
groups in the policy process







number of interest organizations
number of lobbyists
level of resources
shaping public perceptions
traditionally held in high regard, and viewed as linked to healthy economy
mobility
nonetheless, corporate power waxes and wanes within its overall
privileged position
Curing the Mischief
of Factions
 James
Madison was thinking primarily about the tyranny
of majority factions when he referred to the “mischief of
factions.”
 We now know that the politics of faction is usually the
province of narrow and privileged interests rather than
majorities.
 This creates problems with respect to democracy.
 Tools
used to solve some of the problems of
factions
 Disclosure
 Regulation
Ethics
in Government Act (1978)
 Control
McCain
Feingold bill (2002)
Interest Groups, Corporations, and
Democracy



Many worry that these reforms do not get to the heart of the
problem.
Some political scientists have suggested that we focus our efforts
on strengthening institutions of majoritarian democracy such as
political parties, the Presidency, and Congress.
Efforts to reform the interest group system may be frustrated by the
inescapable fact that highly unequal resources eventually will find
their way into our political life.