IRON TRIANGLE

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IRON TRIANGLE

• Congress
• Interest Groups Bureaucracy

2
IRON TRIANGLE
3
IRON TRIANGLE EXCHANGES

• Congress to Interest Groups
• Give SIGs positive legislation
• Give SIGs access
• Give SIGs information
• Interest Groups to Congress
• Give Congress information
• Give Congress electoral support
• Give members campaign contributions

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IRON TRIANGLE
5
IRON TRIANGLE EXCHANGES

• Congress to Bureaucracy
• Give budgetary support
• Information( i.e. status of legislation, etc.)
• Access to the legislative process
• Positive legislation
• Bureaucracy to Congress
• Positive legislative reinforcement( intent)
• Information

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IRON TRIANGLE
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IRON TRIANGLE EXCHANGES

• Bureaucracy to Interest Groups
• Positive Legislative Enforcement
• Information
• Research
• Access
• Interest Groups to Bureaucracy
• Information
• Research
• Enforcement Support
• Budgetary Support

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IRON TRIANGLE
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IN CONCLUSION...

• As participants change, so does the strength and
  power of the triangle.
• TRIANGLE FAILURE due to
• Public visibility
• Congress may become more sensitive to public
  demands and less to special interests
• Existence and Participation of Opposing SIGs
• Inability to act in a way that pleases everyone

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IRON TRIANGLES

• Iron Triangles simplified definition of
  policy-making   
• Control is said  to be vested in an informal but
  enduring series of "iron triangles" linking
  executives bureaus, congressional committees,
  and interest group clienteles with a stake in
  particular programs.  The iron triangle concept
  is not so much wrong as it is disastrously
  incomplete.
• Factors at work
•     1.  growth in the sheer mass of government
  activity and associated expectation.     2. 
  the  peculiar, loose-jointed play of influence
  that is accompanying this growth     3.  the
  layering and specialization that have overtaken
  the government work force, not least the
  political leadership of the bureaucracy
• Issue Triangles
• Policy-making more complicated than
  iron-triangle

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ISSUE NETWORKS

• An issue network is a shared-knowledge group
  having to do with some aspect of public policy.
• Participants move in and out of issue networks
  constantly.
• It is through networks of people who regard each
  other as knowledgeable, or at least as needing to
  be answered, that public policy issues tend to be
  refined, evidence debated, and alternative
  options worked out though rarely in any
  controlled, well-organized way.
• Includes legislators and their staff, interest
  groups, bureaucrats, scholars other experts,
  media representatives.
• Policy issues may involve conflicting positions
  taken by two or more issue networks.