American Government Unit IV Assessment (MATHGUY08 ONLY)

Chapter 9

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9-2

The Interest-Group System  Economic groups

 Business groups

 Labor groups

 Farm groups

 Professional groups

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9-3

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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9-4

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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9-5© 2013, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

9-6© 2013, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

9-7

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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9-8

Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence

through Official Contacts  Acquiring access to officials

 Lobbying Congress

 Lobbying the executive

 Lobbying the courts

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9-9

Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence

through Official Contacts  Webs of influence: groups in the policy process

 Iron triangles

 Bureaucrats, lobbyists, legislators

 Small, informal, stable

 Issue networks

 Officials, lobbyists, and policy specialists

 Temporary

 More frequent than iron triangles

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9-10© 2013, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

9-11

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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9-12

Outside Lobbying: Seeking

Influence through Public Pressure  Electoral action: votes and money

 PACs (political action committees)

 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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9-13© 2013, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

9-14© 2013, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

9-15

Outside Lobbying: Seeking

Influence through Public Pressure  Electoral action: votes and money

 Super PACs or independent-expenditure-only-committees

(IEOCs)

 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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9-16

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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9-17

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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