Chapter Nine: Interest Groups

A. Explaining Proliferation-there are 3 reasons interest groups are common in the United States

1. More cleavages, means more interests; America is so diverse, and made up of so many different cultures, the social facts make a great variety of groups.
2. The American Constitutional system-when political authority is shared between the president, courts and Congress there are plenty of places where one can argue one's case; More chances to influence policy, more organizations will seek to exercise that influence.
3. Weakness of political parties; when parties are strong interest groups work through the parties, when parties are weak, interest groups work directly through the government

B. Birth of Interest Groups

1. Broad economic developments that creatte new interests and redifine the old ones.
2. Government policy helped create interest groups; (wars create veterans,who in turn demand pensions and other benefits); Unions flourished after Congress passed laws in the 1930s that required employers to bargain with unions
3. Political organizations do not emerge automatically, even when government allows, and social circumstances seem to require them; Someone takes the leadership role (usually at a personal cost), young and caught up in a social movement, drawn to need of change
4. The more activities government undertakes, the more organized groups there will be that are interested in these activities; 1930s-government began making labor and business policies

C. 2 Kinds of Organizations

1. Interest group-any organization that seeks to influence policy
2. Institutional Interests-individuals or organizations representing other organizations

• Tend to be interested in bread-and butter issues of vital concern to their clients
• Represent business firms, governments, universities and foundations

D. Membership Interests

1. Americans have a high tendance to join religious, civic or political associations-giving us a stronger since of civic duty

E. Incentives to joining
Incentive-something of value available only to someone who joins the group

1. Solidary incentive- sense of pleasure, status, or companionship that arises out of meeting together in small groups
   
2. Material incentive-money, or things and services readily valued in monetary terms
   
3. purposive incentive- the appeal of their stated goals (to recruit members), common in ideological interest groups (attracting members by appealing to their interest in cohererent set of controversial principles); public-interest lobby-organization benefits non-members (highly controversial topics)
4. Interest Groups and Social Movements

social movement-a widely shared demand for change in some aspect of the social or political order

• The Environmental Movement
• The Feminist Movement (3 kinds)
  

Rely only on solidary incentives
Attract members with proposive incentives-take strong positions, usually controversial
Groups that take on specific issues, usually for material benefit

• The Union Movement

F. Funds for Interest Groups

1. Foundation grants, Federal grants and Contracts, Direct Mail

G. Problem of Bias-many believe that groups in Washington have upper-class bias

1. Well-off people are more likely to join
2. Interest groups representing business and the professions are much more numerous and better financed than organizations representing minorities, consumers and the disadvantaged
3. Though some argue that most issues in American politics are within the upper middle class, so they are going to be a little biased

H. The Activities of Interest Groups

1. Letter writing, information gathering, dramatic headline news, state protests, file suits in federal court, etc.

I. Information-valuable because: to busy legislators and bureaucrats, information is in short supply

1. Lobbyists-non-flamboyant, specialists who gather information
2. Political cue-a signal telling the official what values are at stake in an issue, and how that issue fits into his or her own set of political beliefs

J. Public Support: The Rise of New politics

1. Interest groups use outsider strategy to exchange information: Internet, television, toll-free phones, mail, public opinion polls, etc.
2. Members of interest groups will work primarily with legislators with whom they agree (lobbyists will make a major effort to persuade an undecided legislator that public opinion is strongly inclined one way)

• The public at large doesn't care about issues, so interest groups will try different campaigns to arouse a small but passionate group to write letters or vote (or not vote) for specified candidates

K. Money and PACs

1. Campaign Finance Reform Law 1973-sharply restricted the amount that any interest group could give to a candidate for federal office, made it legal for corporations and labor unions to form political action committees that could make political contributions
2. Almost any kind of organization can form a PAC, over half are sponsored by corporations , a tenth by labor unions, and the rest by various groups such as ideological ones
3. It is possible that money effects legislative behavior, or contributions may influence how legislators behave on committees on which they serve. No one really knows.

L. The Revolving Door

1. People fear that when people leave important jobs int he federal government to get more lucrative ones with the corporations or private industry jobs; the public interest may suffer.

LINKS:
NAACP
American Civil Liberties Union
Public Citizen

Assigned Reading:
http://www.initiativesamendment.org/problem.htm
*read the Intro and the Institutionalization of Problems

FRQ: There seems to have been an upper-class bias when dealing with Interst Groups in Washington. The above article talks about how the people can change it, since it is ultimately thier issue. Who's job is it to keep Washington non-biased? How can the people act differently to prevent bias?