Chapter10IntrestGroups1.pptxChapter 10: Interest Groups
American National Government
PL-102
Instructor Walter Pearn
1
Chapter Objectives
Explain how interest groups differ from political parties.
Evaluate the different types of interests and what they do.
Compare public and private interest groups.
Explain the concept of collective action and its effect on interest group formation.
Describe free riding and the reasons it occurs.
Discuss ways to overcome collective action problems.
Chapter Objectives
Analyze how interest groups provide a means for political participation.
Discuss recent changes to interest groups and the way they operate in the United States.
Explain why lower socioeconomic status citizens are not well represented by interest groups.
Identify the barriers to interest group participation in the United States.
Chapter Objectives
Describe how interest groups influence the government through elections.
Explain how interest groups influence the government through the governance processes.
Identify the various court cases, policies, and laws that outline what interest groups can and cannot do.
Evaluate the arguments for and against whether contributions are a form of freedom of speech.
Interest Groups
An interest group may be defined as an assemblage of people who share common attitudes and interests and who try to influence the political system by shaping public opinion, opposing or supporting candidates for public office, and influencing the decisions of government officials.
Some groups are large and have a national membership. Others may involve only a small number of people trying to solve a specific local problem, such as the quality of local schools or air pollution from a local industrial plant.
Almost all Americans belong to one or more interest groups or are represented by such groups even though they are not formal members.
Interest groups are a highly significant force in the creation of public policy in the United States.
Unlike political parties, interest groups are not generally concerned with electing members to office but, rather, focus on securing policy outcomes that favor their membership.
The growth of Interest Groups
Several factors account for the increase in the number of interest groups.
The first factor is the basic structure of American government.
Federalism and separation of powers provide opportunities for interest group activity to flourish.
The second factor is the economic specialization of American society.
Finally, the increase in the number of interest groups is also due partly to the success of some prominent groups, such as the National Rifle Association and the American Association of Retired Persons.
The Structure of Interest Groups
Many of the largest interest groups are organized like the government with power divided between national and local levels.
Depending on the interest group, the degree to which members participate in the group activities varies.
Some members are active in the day-to-day activities of the organization, while others—probably the majority—choose to support the group without actively participating.
In either case, interest groups depend heavily upon their leaders.
Types of Interest Groups
Economic Interest Groups
Noneconomic Interest Groups
Single-Issue Groups
Political Action Committees
Economic Interest Groups
Most interest groups are formed to protect their members’ economic interests.
Some are known as trade associations and speak for groups in a particular sector of the economy.
Professional associations are concerned with licensing requirements in their states—that is, with the standards a person must meet to practice in the state—but they can also be very active on some issues related to government.
Although labor union membership, particularly among auto workers, has declined sharply in recent decades, unions remain an influential economic interest group.
Noneconomic Groups
Some noneconomic interest groups have a religious basis, such as the U.S. Catholic Conference and the National Council of Churches.
Others organize around the moral and social interests of specific groups, such as the National Organization for Women and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Single-Issue Groups
Single-issue groups focus entirely on a single issue, such as abortion, gun control, or the environment.
Single-issue groups judge candidates and public officials by their views on one issue, sometimes placing considerable pressure on the candidates to adopt stands that support the position of the interest groups.
According to some, this has led to a “fragmentation” of American politics and the failure to consider the overall public good.
Political Action Committees
Because corporations and labor unions are prohibited from making direct contributions to political campaigns, political action committees (PACs) were created.
PACs are independent committees that raise and spend money in support of political candidates and issue positions.
According to the Federal Election Commission, there were almost 4,500 PACs in 2009.
Political Action Committees
PACs are permitted to contribute a total of $10,000 to a candidate; $5,000 may be contributed during both the primary and general elections, respectively.
Furthermore, PACs also provide support to campaigns by assisting in voter registration, operating telephone banks on Election Day, distributing campaign literature, and canvassing potential voters.
In recent years, the American public has voiced concern over the power of PACs.
During the 2008 election cycle, the Federal Election Commission estimated that PACs spent more than $135 million on campaigns for Congress and the White House.
This represented a 250 percent increase over the 2006 cycle.
Interest Groups
Lobbying Congress
Lobbying The Executive Branch
Interest Groups and the Courts
Grassroots Activities
Electoral Support
Activities of Interest Groups
The chief method used by interest groups to influence public policy is lobbying, that is, attempting to persuade legislators to vote for or against a particular bill, or to convince members of the executive branch that a particular program is or is not desirable.
Some interest groups attempt to achieve their policy objectives by bringing lawsuits in the courts or by supporting legal actions begun by other individuals or organizations.
Lobbying Congress
Lobbying in Congress may be directed at individual legislators and their staffs, but much effort is aimed at the standing congressional committee that deals with the issue of concern to the interest group.
Interest groups pay their lobbyists to keep them up to date on developments within the government that could affect their members.
Lobbyists may attempt to influence congressional debate by testifying before Congress, submitting prepared statements, and drafting and submitting legislation to individual members of Congress.
Lobbying the Executive Branch
Although the president is less accessible to lobbyists than other government officials, there are numerous ways in which interest groups can influence decision making in the White House.
They may, for example, focus their efforts on the president’s staff or on key decision makers within the federal bureaucracy.
In general, executive agencies and the federal bureaucracy are more open to lobbying efforts than the president.
Interest Groups and the Courts
Although interest groups are not permitted to directly lobby the judiciary, they sometimes use the courts to advance their causes and create policies favorable to their interests.
Interest groups may use the courts directly, attempting to secure a particular decision or outcome.
The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), for example, was the result of a suit filed by the NAACP.
Interest groups may also lobby the Courts through the use of amicus curiae briefs, filed to support particular arguments in a case.
Grassroots Activities
The primary form of grassroots lobbying involves using group members to pressure policymakers to support the group’s agenda by calling, faxing, writing, or emailing their member of Congress.
The Tea Party is a current example of a grassroots movement.
Grassroots lobbying is best directed at legislators who are undecided about a particular issue. The most successful groups are those with the capacity to effectively mobilize a large and diverse membership.
Other groups use more confrontational strategies, such as protests and demonstrations.
While such actions may carry significant symbolic meaning, there is always a danger that they will alienate the public.
Electoral Support
Electoral support may be in terms of money contributed to political campaigns, or other support, such as political consultants, public opinion polls, and voter registration campaigns.
Funding Interest Groups
Interest groups obtain funding through a variety of means, including corporate contributions, membership dues, and staff-generated revenues from magazines, pamphlets, conferences, and training sessions.
How Powerful are Interest Groups
Some interest groups are large and influential, and some are small and relatively unimportant.
The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics estimates that lobbyists spent more than $3.3 billion in 2008.
The larger interest groups tend to benefit from having thousands or millions of members.
Much criticism has been generated because of the uneven distribution of power among interest groups.
Also, interest groups may represent only a small segment of the population.
Interest Groups and the First Amendment
Most people would agree that interest groups have a right under the Constitution to promote a particular point of view.
What people do not necessarily agree upon, however, is the extent to which certain interest group and lobbying activities are protected under the First Amendment.
In addition to free speech rights, the First Amendment grants people the right to assemble.
We saw above that pluralists even argued that assembling in groups is natural and that people will gravitate toward others with similar views.
Organizations like the ACLU support free speech rights regardless of whether the speech is popular.
REGULATING LOBBYING AND INTEREST GROUP ACTIVITY
The 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act defined who can and cannot lobby and requires lobbyists and interest groups to register with the federal government.
The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 further increased restrictions on lobbying.
For example, the act prohibited contact between members of Congress and lobbyists who were the spouses of other Congress members. The laws broadened the definition of lobbyist and require detailed disclosure of spending on lobbying activity, including who is lobbied and what bills are of interest.
REGULATING LOBBYING AND INTEREST GROUP ACTIVITY
The federal and state governments prohibit certain activities like providing gifts to lawmakers and compensating lobbyists with commissions for successful lobbying.
Many activities are prohibited to prevent accusations of vote buying or currying favor with lawmakers. Some states, for example, have strict limits on how much money lobbyists can spend on lobbying lawmakers, or on the value of gifts lawmakers can accept from lobbyists.
REGULATING LOBBYING AND INTEREST GROUP ACTIVITY
Governments require varying levels of disclosure about the amount of money spent on lobbying efforts.
The logic here is that lawmakers will think twice about accepting money from controversial donors.
The other advantage to disclosure requirements is that they promote transparency. Many have argued that the public has a right to know where candidates get their money.
REGULATING LOBBYING AND INTEREST GROUP ACTIVITY
Lobbyists and, in some cases, government officials can be fined, banned from lobbying, or even sentenced to prison.
While state and federal laws spell out what activities are legal and illegal, the attorneys general and prosecutors responsible for enforcing lobbying regulations may be understaffed, have limited budgets, or face backlogs of work, making it difficult for them to investigate or prosecute alleged transgressions.
We know the laws prevent lobbyists from engaging in certain behaviors, such as by limiting campaign contributions or preventing the provision of certain gifts to lawmakers, but how they alter lobbyists’ strategies and tactics remains unclear.
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