Interest Groups
10
Interest Groups
 “Americans of all ages, all conditions,
and all dispositions constantly form
associations.” - Alexis de Tocqueville
 Americans are more likely than citizens
of other countries to participate in a civic
association or community service group.
 Americans are more likely than others to
have worked with a group to express a
political view.
10
Interest Groups
 Are interest groups factions?
10
Role of Interest Groups
10.1
Role of Interest Groups
10.1
 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.
 Policy failure in one area means trying it
in another
 Different from political parties
 Do not run candidates
 Policy specialists, not generalists
Role of Interest Groups
 25,000 interest groups
 Technology aids lobbying
10.1
Theories of Interest Group
Politics
10.2
Pluralism
 Pluralism
 A theory of government and politics emphasizing that
many groups, each pressing for its preferred policies,
compete and counterbalance one another in the
political marketplace.
 Group theory of politics





Groups link people and government
Groups compete
No one group likely to become dominant
Groups play by the rules of the game
Groups weak in one resource can use another
 Concessions
 Some groups stronger than others
 All interests do not get equal hearing
10.2
Elitism
10.2
 Elitism
 A theory of government and politics emphasizing that
many groups, each pressing for its preferred policies,
compete and counterbalance one another in the political
marketplace.
 78% of Americans share this view
 Interlocking directorates
 Multinational corporations
 Lobbying benefits the few at the expense
of the many
Hyperpluralism
10.2
 Elitism
 A theory of government and politics contending that
groups are so strong that government, seeking to please
them all, is thereby weakened.
 Interest group liberalism
 Groups out of control
 Government tries to appease all of them
 Budgets, programs, regulations expand
Hyperpluralism
10.2
 Iron triangles
 Subgovernments are composed of interest group leaders
interested in a particular policy, the government agency
in charge of administering that policy, and the members
of committees and subcommittees handling that policy;
they exercise a great deal of control over specific policy
areas.
 Contradictory and confusing policy results
What Makes an Interest
Group Successful?
10.3
What Makes an Interest
Group Successful?
10.3
 Surprising Ineffectiveness of Large Groups
 Intensity
 Financial Resources
Surprising Ineffectiveness of
Large Groups
 Smaller groups have advantage
 Potential group - All the people who might be interest
group members because they share some common
interest.
 Actual group - The people in the potential group who
actually join.
 Collective good - Something of value that cannot be
withheld from a potential group member.
 Free-rider problem - For a group, the problem of
people not joining because they can benefit form the
group’s activities without joining.
 Selective benefits
10.3
Surprising Ineffectiveness of
Large Groups
 Selective benefits
 Goods that a group can restrict to those who actually
join.
 This can encourage potential members
to become actual members
10.3
Intensity
 Psychological advantage
 Helps preserve the status quo
 Single-issue groups
 Groups that have a narrow interest, tend to dislike
compromise, and often draw membership from people
new to politics.
10.3
Financial Resources
10.3
 System is biased toward wealthy
 2008 federal elections cost $5 billion
 Donations lead to access
 But $$$ does not always lead to lobbying
success
 Other side contributes, too
How Groups Try to Shape
Policy
10.4
Lobbying
10.4
 Lobbying
 According to Lester Milbrath, a “communication, by
someone other than a citizen acting on his or her own
behalf, directed to a government decision maker with
the hope of influencing his or her decision.” Temporary
employee
 Two types of lobbyists
 Full-time employee
 Temporary employee
 Often former legislators
Lobbying
 Ways lobbyists help
 Provide information
 Help politicians with political strategy for getting
legislation through
 Help formulate campaign strategy and get the group’s
members behind a politician’s reelection campaign
 A source of ideas and innovations
10.4
FIGURE 10.1: Industries’ big spenders on
lobbying, 2009-2011
10.4
Electioneering
 Electioneering
 Direct group involvement in the electoral process, for
example, by helping to fund campaigns, getting
members to work for candidates, and forming political
action committees.
 Aiding candidates financially
 Getting out the vote
 PACs
 $5,000 limit in primary and general election
 Mainly support incumbents
10.4
Litigation
 Suing for enforcement
 Environmental regulations
 Civil rights groups – 1950s
 Amicus curiae briefs
 Class action lawsuits
10.4
Going Public
 Public opinion influences policy makers
 Mobilize public opinion
 Public relations
10.4
Interest group ad
10.4
Types of Interest Groups
10.5
Economic Interests
 Labor
 Unions
 Goal is to get better working conditions and higher
wages
 Declining in membership due to international
competition and better non-unionized jobs
10.5
Economic Interests
10.5
 Union shop
 A provision found in some collective bargaining
agreements requiring all employees of a business to
join the union within a short period, usually 30 days,
and to remain members as a condition of employment.
 Right-to-work laws
 A state law forbidding requirements that workers must
join a union to hold their jobs. State right-to-work
laws were specifically permitted by the Taft-Hartley
Act of 1947.
Wisconsin collective bargaining fight
10.5
Economic Interests
 Business
 Dominate lobbying and PACs
 Business interests not monolithic
 Policy differences among industries
10.5
FIGURE 10.2: How corporate PACs have
shifted toward the majority party
10.5
Environmental Interests
 Sprang up since 1970
 More than 10,000 groups with $2.9 billion revenue
 Profound policy impact
 Influential due to numbers, not money
10.5
Save the polar bear
10.5
Equality Interests
 Fourteenth Amendment guarantees
 Minorities
 NAACP/Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
 Social welfare policies
 Women
 National Organization for Women (NOW)
 Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
10.5
Consumer and Other Public
Interest Lobbies
 Public interest lobbies
 According to Jeffery Berry, organizations that seek “a
collective good, the achievement of which will not
selectively and materially benefit the membership or
activists of the organization.”
 Policies in the public interest
 Collective goods
 What is the public interest?
10.5
Understanding Interest Groups
10.6
Interest Groups and
Democracy
 Does pluralism prevail?
 Growth in number of interest groups
 Less clout for any one group
 Interest group corruption?
 Business PACs
 Wealthy groups dominate
 Gridlock?
10.6
Interest Groups and the Scope
of Government
 Individualistic and associational
 Difficult to reduce spending
 Vicious circle
 Groups lead to policy
 Policy prompts new groups to form
10.6